For the better part of two decades, one name above all others inspired fear among ordinary Afghans: Sirajuddin Haqqani.

       To many, Mr. Haqqani was a boogeyman, an angel of death with the power to determine who would live and who would die during the U.S.-led war. He deployed his ranks of Taliban suicide bombers, who rained carnage on American troops and Afghan civilians alike. A ghostlike kingpin of global jihad, with deep ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks, he topped the United States’ most-wanted list in Afghanistan, with a $10 million bounty on his head.

       But since the Americans’ frantic withdrawal in 2021 and the Taliban’s return to power, Mr. Haqqani has portrayed himself as something else altogether: A pragmatic statesman. A reliable diplomat. And a voice of relative moderation in a government steeped in religious extremism.

       Mr. Haqqani’s makeover is part of a larger conflict that has roiled the Taliban over the past three years, even as the group works to present a united front. At the center is the Taliban’s emir and head of state, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, a hard-line cleric whose evisceration of women’s rights has isolated Afghanistan on the global stage.

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       As Sheikh Haibatullah has seized near total control over major policy, Mr. Haqqani has emerged as his most persistent challenger. Mr. Haqqani has privately lobbied for girls to be allowed to return to school beyond the sixth grade and for women to resume work in government offices, according to several Taliban and foreign officials. And as Sheikh Haibatullah has denounced Western ideals and dismissed Western demands, Mr. Haqqani has offered himself as a bridge.

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       Mr. Haqqani attending a police graduation ceremony in Kabul in 2022. It was his first ever public appearance. Credit...EPA, via Shutterstock

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