Afghan Minister for Refugees and Repatriation Khalil ur Rehman Haqqani and four other people were killed on Wednesday when a suicide bomber exploded his jacket near a mosque located on the premises of the ministry. Haqqani was leaving the mosque after attending the Zuhr prayer, according to a Taliban official.

Initial reports revealed that several people were also injured in the attack and they were shifted to the hospital for first aid. Khalil ur Rehman was the brother of Jalal ud din Haqqani who started the Haqqani network after joining Mullah Omar's Taliban regime after 1990. Khalil was considered the backbone of this network who fought against Western powers for more than two decades. He played a pivotal role in the Doha talks and in securing seats for Haqqanis in the central cabinet of Afghan Supreme Leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada. He was the uncle of Afghan Minister for Interior Siraj ud din Haqqani.

In 2021 when the Taliban came into power, Haqqani served as in charge of security in Kabul, later on, he was appointed Minister for Refugees and Repatriation. Haqqani was still on the list of sanctioned individuals by the United States and the US Treasury Department had also put a $5m bounty for him since February 2011. He was also on the United Nations terrorist list for supporting Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. 

On January 17, 2023, The Khorasan Diary sat down with Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani and he explained why more Afghans were returning to their home country than leaving it; assuring that the Taliban were addressing severe economic problems that still make many Afghans want to leave their country. 

He said, "A lot of tribal people have one home here in Afghanistan and one in Pakistan. They also go to Pakistan for trade, to get medical treatment or education. This [migration] has always existed. [Afghanistan and Pakistan] are like one house. To go to Pakistan is easier than to go to Iran."

"Pakistan and Afghanistan had just begun to break the ice again, the resettlement of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the visit of the senior military officials to Kandahar and Kabul, and the appointment of the new but old special representative for Afghanistan were causal steps, one after another to bridge the gaps. Haqqani's death could possibly sabotage the entire process," said Iftikhar Firdous Editor of The Khorasan Diary.

Security Failure

No militant group has claimed the attack on Haqqani till the filing of this story. However, multiple ISKP accounts on social media platforms started celebrating and congratulating each other as soon as the news broke of the attack. Later in the day some Afghanistan-based journalists also started sharing a picture of a man claiming him to be the suicide bomber.  

"It is a grave security failure, that too in the capital, Kabul on the part of the Taliban security apparatus. ISKP infiltration at such a high level and its targeting of senior Taliban officials makes the group the most significant threat to the Taliban-led Afghan Interim Government. If attacks of such nature continue, they may also fuel internal rifts," said Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud, Director of News The Khorasan Diary.

At the start of January 2024, the General Directorate of Intelligence of Afghanistan rejected the claim of US Command regarding the expansion of ISKP known as Daesh also. 

"We strongly reject remarks of the commander of the US Central Command regarding the growth of the Khawarij mischief militant group (Daesh) in Afghanistan and the expansion of its military presence and consider it intelligence propaganda as well as a kind of campaign for seditionist Khwarij mischief, said Khalil Hamzad the spokesman of the General Directorate of Intelligence.

He also said that we assure our nation, our neighbours and the world that the Kharijites are no longer a matter of concern in Afghanistan. 

Other than US Afghanistan has many times pointed fingers towards Pakistan for supporting ISKP. On September 30, Zabiullah Mujahid Spokesperson for the Afghan Interim Government wrote on his social media handle, "Further investigation revealed that the attacker who targeted the employees of the Directorate of Compliance and Oversight had infiltrated Afghanistan from a Daesh Khorasan training camp located in Mastung, Balochistan."

"Afghanistan has consistently blamed Pakistan for its Islamic State problem, it is believed that ISKP carried out the attack, it would be too optimistic to think that the Taliban would not point fingers towards Pakistan. If this results in stalling the process for a renewed peace in Pakistan, it will definitely boost the TTP's strength and weaponise their attacks inside Pakistan even further." Said Firdous. 

Last year on March 9 2023, the Taliban governor of Afghanistan's northern Balkh province Mohammad Dawood Muzammil was also killed in a suicide attack in his office in the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, that was later claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

"If in 2023, ISKP focused majorly on Taliban leaders with multiple assassinations and attempted attacks, in 2024, we witnessed a significant decrease in ISKP attacks. However, even with fewer attacks, the group managed to attack all primary targets that come under their ideology and propaganda narratives, including foreigners, geographically symbolic areas, (Kandahar), Sufi currents, the Shia community, and the Taliban leadership, now. This excludes repeated major attacks conducted in Pakistan, for instance during elections, and attacks in Russia, Türkiye and Iran, where ISKP had different degrees of involvement." said Valle Riccardo Director of Research for The Khorasan Diary.

Messages of Condolences 

Meanwhile, senior Afghan leaders including Zabiullah Mujahid Spokesperson for the Afghan Interim Government started sharing condolence messages on different social media platforms and also started a special hashtag #شهیدحقاني to give tribute to the Taliban leader.

Foreign Minister of Pakistan Ishaq Dar also wrote a message on 'X' formerly Twitter and said, "We are deeply shocked at the death of Acting Afghan Minister, Khalil ur Rehman Haqqani and loss of precious lives as a result of a terrorist attack in the Afghan Refugee Ministry in Kabul today."

He also said that Pakistan unequivocally condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and authorities are in touch with the Interim Afghan Government to ascertain further details.