Maulvi Ahmed Jan (died 21 November 2013) was a former Taliban official who eventually became the

Haqqani Network The Haqqani network is an Afghan Islamist group, built around the family of the same name, that has used asymmetric warfare in Afghanistan to fight against Soviet forces in the 1980s, and US-led NATO forces and the Islamic Republic of Afghanist ...

's chief spiritual adviser. Hailing from

Ghazni province Ghazni (Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in southeastern Afghanistan. The province contains 19 districts, encompassing over a thousand villages and roughly 1.3 million people, making it the 5th most populous province. Th ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

, Ahmad Jan had also served the Taliban government of Mullah

Omar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate o ...

as federal minister for water and power, before being appointed the Governor of the Zabul Province in 2000. His name figured on the CIA's list of most wanted Taliban commanders after he was accused of masterminding a number of deadly suicide attacks in Afghanistan. According to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

, in 2000, an individual known as

Maulavi Mawlawi ( ar, مولوي; also spelled Maulvi, Molvi, Moulavi and Mawlvi) is an Islamic religious title given to Muslim religious scholars, or ulama, preceding their names, similar to the titles Mawlānā, Mullah, or Sheikh. Mawlawi generally ...

Ahmad Jan was the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...

's Governor of Zabol Province. The United Nations listed him as an individual subject to the sanctions authorized by

United Nations Security Council resolution A United Nations Security Council resolution is a United Nations resolution adopted by the fifteen members of the Security Council (UNSC); the United Nations (UN) body charged with "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international pea ...

s 1267 and 1333. In March 2010, he was sanctioned by the United Nation for his ties to Al Qaeda. At the time, Jan was described as a chief financier and logistics official for the Haqqani Network and one of the leaders of the

Taliban's Quetta Shura The Leadership Council of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also translated as the Supreme Council, () (also referred to as the Inner Shura) is the central governing body of the Taliban and Afghanistan. The Taliban uses a consensus decision-maki ...

. He was captured in late February 2010. He was eventually released from prison and became the Haqqani Network's spiritual leader. Jan eventually became the chief deputy to network leader

Sirajuddin Haqqani Sirajuddin Haqqani ( ps, سراج الدين حقاني, Sirāj al-Dīn Ḥaqqānī, ; aliases ''Khalifa'', and, ''Siraj Haqqani''. born December 1979) is an Afghan Islamist militant who is the first deputy leader of Afghanistan and the acti ...

and had been responsible for organizing some of the network's most deadly attacks in Afghanistan. On 21 November 2013, Jan was killed in Pakistan after missiles from a U.S. predator drone struck his seminary in

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...

's Bannu district.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jan, Ahmad Taliban governors People from Ghazni Province Deaths by United States drone strikes in Pakistan 2013 deaths Year of birth missing Afghan expatriates in Pakistan