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| Afghanistan |
| Pashtun warlord sez Ismail Khan's men bumped off tribal leader... |
| 2002-11-04 |
| An associate of a Pashtun warlord in western Afghanistan on Sunday accused the governor of Herat province of sending men to murder an 80-year-old tribal leader. Saifullah Khan, an associate of Pashtun leader Amanullah Khan, said 80-year-old Younis Khan and two of his sons, were shot dead on Saturday evening in Ghurian, west of Herat, by troops loyal to the governor. "Ismail Khan's forces entered Ghurian district, which is controlled by Pashtuns, and shot three innocent people dead," Saifullah Khan told Reuters by telephone. Terrible, when that happens. Just terrible. The poor old man...! A commander close to Ismail Khan dismissed the allegations as "ludicrous" and accused the Pashtuns of attacking government troops in Ghurian. Haji Mohammed said the Herat governor's men were ambushed by those of Amanullah Khan and only resorted to shooting back when some of their number were wounded. "We know nothing about the murders of Younis Khan and his two sons," said Haji Mohammed. "We have no clue who could have done it and we certainly didn't have anything to do with them." "Nope. Wudn't us..." Saifullah Khan said Amanullah Khan had appealed to President Hamid Karzai for an investigation into the killings. Poor Karzai's putting up with a continuous stream of bitching and moaning from the Pashtuns around Shindand. It looks like now that Bacha Khan Zadran's been kicked out of Khost, Amanullah Khan's going to take his place, only he going to use Ismail Khan as his whipping boy. But Ismail Khan's old enough and mean enough to clobber him, I think... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |