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Afghan District Chief Killed in Attack in Southern Province

Posted on: Saturday, 4 March 2006, 09:00 CST

Text of report in English by Afghan independent Pajhwok news agency website

Kandahar City, 4 March: Unidentified assailants gunned down the newly-appointed chief of the Sangin District of the insurgency- plague Helmand Province, officials said on Saturday [4 March].

Provincial security chief Colonel Asadollah Sherzad told Pajhwok Afghan News the new district chief Amir Jan was killed by two motorcyclists in his native district of Musa Kala on Friday.

He explained the district chief was on leave. He was fired upon in the Musa Kala market. The district chief died on the spot while the attackers managed to flee, informed the officer. He added a search operation had been launched in the area to arrest the culprits.

The attack came at a time when government officials claim killing a dozen Taleban and arresting several others following a clash with police in the Sangin District of Helmand the same day.

It is pertinent to recall that some 20 Taleban and nine policemen along with chief of the Sangin District were killed in a fight last month. During the same period, chief of the Musa Kala District was also killed by attackers.

Meanwhile, one cop was killed and two others wounded in a landmine explosion in the Maywand district of the neighbouring Kandahar Province.

District chief Haji Saifollah told Pajhwok Afghan News on Saturday the mine exploded when the policemen were on patrol in the Nakhonak area of the province. He said the injured had been shifted to the Maywand Hospital, where their condition is stated to be out of danger.

He blamed enemies of the state, the term Afghan officials use for Taleban, for the attack and said operation had been launched to net down the culprits.

Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

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