Brigadier General Abdul Raziq Achakzai, chief of police in Kandahar, and an American-supported strongman there, was rumored to be resigning a week ago.
Unconfirmed reports suggest Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq is resigning from position.
An informed source has confirmed that Gen. Raziq is preparing to resign from his position as Kandahar police chief.
The source speaking on the condition of anonymity said Gen. Raziq is currently in Kabul and is expected to present his resignation in the near future.
Kandahar police chief resigns after ordering Taliban detainees execution, Khaama
No additional news about the rumored resignation has been reported since then.
Raziq had recently been quoted as ordering the extra-judicial execution of captured prisoners.
Kandahar police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, has ordered to execute Taliban detainees who are arrested during the military operations.
Gen. Raziq was speaking to reporters following an operation against Taliban militants in Zherai district of southern Kandahar province.
Kandahar police chief orders execution of militants arrested during operations, Khaama
Allegations of torture and killings by Raziq have a considerable history.
Over the past three years, the provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, himself a target of a suicide bombing that nearly killed him, has pursued a no-holds-barred policy in his effort to gain the upper hand against the militants.
However, there are persistent reports of innocent people being tortured and killed, creating a backlash that local people say has fed support for the Taliban.
A Death Draws Attention to Afghan Police Methods, New York Times
In this month's Harper's, Anand Gopal investigates torture and executions in Kandahar.
The first bodies were found early in the morning, after the call to prayer, in the tall reeds abutting the southern edge of Kandahar city. One was lying faceup, lower lip split, stab wounds to the face and stomach, a hole where the left eye had been. The second, a few yards away, had brown-black mottled skin and burnt hair. The third body’s neck was partially sawed through, and the face bore the same pattern of black scarring and singed hair. All three were handcuffed.
The next day, in Subdistrict 7, a working-class area to the north of the city, a shopkeeper discovered a corpse in a canal. A report by the United Nations noted: “Head riddled with bullets and was smashed completely.” Two days later, at Mirwais hospital, Kandahar’s main health center, two bodies came in without any visible marks except a small hole, apparently made with a drill bit, in each of the skulls.
Kandahar’s Mystery Executions, Harpers (paywall)
Gopal, while investigating the story, had been detained at a checkpoint, and taken to the headquarters of a Raziq subcommander. The subcommander had Gopal thrown in jail. An American military officer, an advisor to Raziq, arrived at the jail, and took information to Raziq, who would decide what to do. Raziq had Gopal released from the jail, and ejected from Kandahar.
A tweet shows Abdul Raziq and former National Directorate of Security head Asadullah Khalid, meeting with Atta Mohammed Noor, Governor of Balkh.
Noor is an Abdullah Abdullah supporter in the election, and has been threatening civil war if Abdullah does not win. Both Raziq and Khalid have been claimed to be responsible for ballot box stuffing.
The meeting of the northern and southern strongmen shows that alliances can be complex.