Unknown gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying Abdul Bassir Achakzai, a former Afghan police chief in Kandahar, in the Pakistani city of Quetta on Saturday, killing his brother and wounding him along with three others, sources confirmed to KabulNow.
The attack happened when Abdul Bassir Achazai, his brother and security guards were leaving his home.
Abdul Bassir Achakzai served as the district police chief in several districts of Afghanistan’s Kandahar and Helmand provinces. He was a close ally of General Abdul Raziq Achakzai, a prominent anti-Taliban commander, who was assassinated by the Taliban in October 2018 in Kandahar as he walked alongside the US Army General Scott Miller, the then the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The attack on Abul Bassir Achackzai comes five months after the assassination in the same city of another former police chief and anti-Taliban commander, Abdul Samad Achakzai.
After the US withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, many former Afghan security officials and anti-Taliban commanders, fearing reprisal from the group, have fled to Pakistan, Iran and other countries.
Many who have remained in the country have been detained, tortured or killed by the Taliban, despite the group’s general amnesty. Hassan Reza Hazara, a former Afghan army officer, was assassinated in Kabul on Friday.
