Haji Mali Khan, a senior member of the Haqqani Network, currently serves as the Deputy Chief of Army Staff at the Ministry of National Defense since March 2022. Before his current appointment, Haji Mali Khan served as the governor of Logar province until March 2022. In September 2011, the U.S. forces captured Mali Khan during a raid in eastern Khost province. At the time, he was reported to have “worked directly under Siraj[uddin] Haqqani,” the leader of the Haqqani Network and current minister of interior. Before his capture, Mali Khan oversaw bases for Haqqani Network fighters in eastern Paktia province and facilitated cross-border movement of foreign jihadists between Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to his detainee file, Mali Khan served as a liaison with the leader of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), Baitullah Mehsud, who was later killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2009. He also funded militant operations and provided logistical support. In late 2019, he was released by the Afghan government along with two other senior Haqqani Network leaders — Anas Haqqani, brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, and Qari Abdul Rashid Omari, a key military leader — in exchange for two American University of Afghanistan professors held by the Haqqani Network since 2016. Mali Khan is the maternal uncle of Interior Minister, Khalifa Sirajuddin Haqqani. He has reportedly been involved in drug trafficking, specifically in the production and trafficking of methamphetamine through established networks in Nimruz province. While Mali Khan is presently not included on the UN's sanctions list, the U.S. Department of State designated him in November 2011 under Executive Order 13224 due to his involvement in providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism, including "overseeing hundreds of fighters and instructing subordinates to carry out terrorist acts."
