EFSAS Article: The Haqqani Network and fragmentation of the Taliban
February 23, 2022
The origins of the Haqqani network go back to the 1970’s, when Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Pashtun tribesman who was born as the son of a trader in Afghan’s Paktia Province, graduated from the Darul-ul-Uloom Haqqania Madrassa in Akhora Khattak, Pakistan, where he studied to become an Islamic scholar. Founded in 1947, the madrassa is one of Pakistan’s oldest and largest Deobandi Islamic seminaries and is also called the “University of Jihad” due to its infamous alumni that include former Taliban leader Akhtar Mansoor and several other leading figures of the Taliban and the Haqqani network, the latter one even owing its name to the madrassa.
