Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pardoned a defiant warlord who was handed over by Pakistani authorities earlier this week after being arrested in the neighboring country, a senior official said here on Friday. "Padshah Khan Zadran has been released at an order by President Karzai, and he is currently in the capital city as a guest," Minister of Border Affairs Mohammad Arif Noorzai told Xinhua.
| Karzai's crazy, unless being a "guest" in Kabul involves being chained to the wall in somebody's cellar... |
Zadran, a luantic renegade Afghan commander arrested over two months ago during a visit to his family in a tribal area of Pakistan close to the Afghan border, was handed over to the Afghan government on Tuesday. The warlord was accused by Karzai's US-backed government of allowing his militia soldiers to conduct armed banditry along highways in the country's eastern border area after his appointment of a provincial governor was removed in late 2001. Zadran, who fought along with US forces in the war against the Taliban in 2001 and participated the subsequent Bonn peace conference, was once appointed governor of the southeastern Paktia province soon after Karzai's government came to power. But the appointment was removed soon as local officials were not happy with their new governor and refused to accept him. Skirmishes have been seen in the province since then as militia troops loyal to Zadran set up unauthorized checkpoints along highways in the province to charge money form passers-by.
| They're called "banditti." |
Zadran's militiamen even fought against government forces and fired rockets at Gardez in the provincial capital of Paktia in revenge, killing about 70 people, according to official reports.
| But they're not dead anymore, so Karzai let him off... |
President Karzai earlier issued an order to arrest the warlord, whose soldiers were also believed to have made attacks against US forces deployed in the province. However, observers here said that Karzai's government could not afford to punish the defiant strongman as he has widespread support among local people in his tribal area.
| Better to let 'em support a corpse. |
Minister Noorzai said that tribal leaders from Zadran's area would come to Kabul in coming days to discuss with Karzai on a possible position for Zadran in the government. |