Daily Times

Tragedy struck in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar once again.The governor, police chief and National Directorate of Security Chief of Kandahar province were shot dead by their guards yesterday.

The shooting followed a meeting in which General Scott Miller, the commander of NATO in Afghanistan, was also present. The American commander remained unhurt. The meeting was taking place in the governor of Kandahar’s residence, and the shooter was wearing an Afghan Army uniform.

This attack is a massive blow to the Kandahar province which has now lost its entire security and intelligence leadership. The Taliban have accepted the responsibility for this attack.

The police commander of Kandahar, General Abdul Raziq Achakzai, was also killed. He is said to be the prime target of the shooting. Raziq was an influential commander and charismatic warlord of the south. He had escaped several death attempts and was considered invincible by many. Much of his power rested on US intelligence and security officials who viewed him as their great ally in the war against the Taliban. His death is being called as an insider job and a great victory for the Taliban who have been seeking to make inroads into Kandahar again. Clearing Kandahar of insurgents had been one of the key milestones in this war against terrorism.

However, there is another side to Raziq’s legacy. He was commonly referred to as the “Torturer-in-Chief” for his systematic use of torture, arbitrary mass detentions, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings for maintaining law and order in Kandahar. In May 2017, the U.N. Committee against Torture asked for his prosecution for being “widely suspected of complicity.. in severe human rights abuses.”

Nevertheless, the late Raziq is being mourned by the western media and Afghans alike.

Thursday’s attack has generated a lot of concern regarding the security situation in Kandahar, which is the second most populous city in Afghanistan. Neither the Americans nor the Afghans or any other stakeholder would want Kandahar to sink back into chaos.  *

Published in Daily Times, October 19^th 2018.