The United States has lifted a $10 million reward offer for information leading to the arrest of a major Taliban leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, an Afghan interior ministry spokesperson said on Saturday.
Sirajuddin was wanted by America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for questioning, with the US offering the $10m reward.
He heads his own group called the Haqqani network, which has been designated a terror outfit by the US for carrying out several major attacks on foreign and Afghan forces during the 20-year-long war in Afghanistan.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. The FBI still lists the reward on its website, saying Haqqani was “believed to have coordinated and participated in cross-border attacks against United States and coalition forces in Afghanistan”.
This development comes after the Taliban on Thursday freed an American citizen detained in Afghanistan for over two years following direct talks between US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and Taliban officials in Kabul, a source briefed on the release had said.
George Glezmann, a mechanic for Delta Airlines in Atlanta, was detained in 2022 while visiting Kabul as a tourist, left Afghanistan aboard a Qatari aircraft on Thursday evening bound for Qatar, the source said.
Sirajuddin is the son of Mujahideen leader Jalauddin Haqqani, who fought against the erstwhile Soviet Union in the 1980s. The senior Haqqani later joined the Taliban and served as minister in the previous Taliban government.
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, China has been the most prominent nation to officially accept one of their diplomats. Other countries, including India and Qatar, agreed with Taliban representatives in an unofficial capacity, while U.S. envoys have also held meetings with Taliban officials.
