Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Financial Times
April 30, 2008 By Jon Boone, Herat
For Mullah Khudadad, the most senior cleric in the north-western Afghan city of Herat, even getting his 15-year-old son to school has become a challenge.
As the boy rounded a street corner recently, a car tried to block the path of his motor-rickshaw and haul him out. A nearby police officer and the speedy reactions of the rickshaw driver saved him from becoming the latest victim of the city’s kidnapping wave.
As little as a year ago, Herat seemed an oasis of security in Afghanistan; now it has become a place where even the mullahs’ children are no longer safe.
According to the head of Afghanistan’s national security directorate, the city has the highest kidnap rate in the country. Things have become so bad that shopkeepers and doctors, many of whom have been targeted, went on strike in March over the lack of security.
But it is not primarily the Taliban that is responsible for Herat’s change in fortunes. Local power-brokers flexing their muscle have brought instability almost as damaging as in the insurgency-racked south.
Maulvi Khudadad blames the malaise, and the attempt on his son, on supporters of Herat’s former governor, Ismail Khan. “The looting and kidnapping is his responsibility. He is thirsty to come back and he thinks that if the situation is bad he will be welcomed back.”
The former jihad commander led armed opposition to both the Soviets and the Taliban, before ruling over Herat. But he was forced out in 2004 by a central government anxious to clip the wings of warlords.
The governor, Sayed Hosayn Anwari, puts the Ismail Khan problem at the top of the list of his five biggest problems. The other big issues are the presence of large numbers of armed people in the city, poverty, intense Taliban activity in nearby Shindand and the “weakness” of the police.
Last month he faced a stone-throwing crowd calling for the reinstatement of the former governor. Mr Khan, who makes no secret of his desire to return to Herat, declined to discuss the situation with the Financial Times.
Locals say the situation is more complicated than simply pro- and anti-Khan factions fighting. Haji Qari, the leader of a local political party, says many of the men who led the resistance to the Soviet invasion in 1979 feel short-changed by a post- jihad world where they have been disarmed and stripped of their old powers. “They want the government to look after them but instead they just had their guns taken away.”
Two former commanders are said to have retreated with their men to a mountainous hideout nearby. Others supporting Mr Khan have formed the United Mujahideen of Herat.
Their rivalries can be deadly. Haji Naim, a former commander, was killed by five gunmen in his house.
Lethal factionalism has also infected the police, with former mujahideen facing off against their colleagues.
Haji Rahmatullah, another former jihad commander and head of police at the Salma Dam, an irrigation and hydroelectric project, was killed two months ago while travelling home by car. According to local sources, 45 policemen have been killed this year. Juma Adel, chief of police in Herat, insists it is a secure province and any trouble is caused by ordinary criminals.
But as Antonio Giustozzi, an Afghanistan expert based at the London School of Economics, notes, such criminals are “unusually aggressive” to target policemen.
The International Crisis Group, the Belgium-based research centre, has warned that kidnap gangs are “tied to insurgent outfits”, fitting the Taliban strategy of creating instability.
The troubles have hit Herat’s booming economy, built on business confidence and trade with Iran. The tallest structure is a tower block left unfinished since its owners told the Turkish builders to cease work.
Ghulam Qadir Akbar, head of the Herat chamber of commerce, says more than 80 businessmen or their family members have been kidnapped in the past two years. Many have headed for Dubai or neighbouring countries in central Asia. “Bring back Ismail Khan and there will be peace,” he says.
April 30, 2008 By Jon Boone, Herat
For Mullah Khudadad, the most senior cleric in the north-western Afghan city of Herat, even getting his 15-year-old son to school has become a challenge.
As the boy rounded a street corner recently, a car tried to block the path of his motor-rickshaw and haul him out. A nearby police officer and the speedy reactions of the rickshaw driver saved him from becoming the latest victim of the city’s kidnapping wave.
As little as a year ago, Herat seemed an oasis of security in Afghanistan; now it has become a place where even the mullahs’ children are no longer safe.
According to the head of Afghanistan’s national security directorate, the city has the highest kidnap rate in the country. Things have become so bad that shopkeepers and doctors, many of whom have been targeted, went on strike in March over the lack of security.
But it is not primarily the Taliban that is responsible for Herat’s change in fortunes. Local power-brokers flexing their muscle have brought instability almost as damaging as in the insurgency-racked south.
Maulvi Khudadad blames the malaise, and the attempt on his son, on supporters of Herat’s former governor, Ismail Khan. “The looting and kidnapping is his responsibility. He is thirsty to come back and he thinks that if the situation is bad he will be welcomed back.”
The former jihad commander led armed opposition to both the Soviets and the Taliban, before ruling over Herat. But he was forced out in 2004 by a central government anxious to clip the wings of warlords.
The governor, Sayed Hosayn Anwari, puts the Ismail Khan problem at the top of the list of his five biggest problems. The other big issues are the presence of large numbers of armed people in the city, poverty, intense Taliban activity in nearby Shindand and the “weakness” of the police.
Last month he faced a stone-throwing crowd calling for the reinstatement of the former governor. Mr Khan, who makes no secret of his desire to return to Herat, declined to discuss the situation with the Financial Times.
Locals say the situation is more complicated than simply pro- and anti-Khan factions fighting. Haji Qari, the leader of a local political party, says many of the men who led the resistance to the Soviet invasion in 1979 feel short-changed by a post- jihad world where they have been disarmed and stripped of their old powers. “They want the government to look after them but instead they just had their guns taken away.”
Two former commanders are said to have retreated with their men to a mountainous hideout nearby. Others supporting Mr Khan have formed the United Mujahideen of Herat.
Their rivalries can be deadly. Haji Naim, a former commander, was killed by five gunmen in his house.
Lethal factionalism has also infected the police, with former mujahideen facing off against their colleagues.
Haji Rahmatullah, another former jihad commander and head of police at the Salma Dam, an irrigation and hydroelectric project, was killed two months ago while travelling home by car. According to local sources, 45 policemen have been killed this year. Juma Adel, chief of police in Herat, insists it is a secure province and any trouble is caused by ordinary criminals.
But as Antonio Giustozzi, an Afghanistan expert based at the London School of Economics, notes, such criminals are “unusually aggressive” to target policemen.
The International Crisis Group, the Belgium-based research centre, has warned that kidnap gangs are “tied to insurgent outfits”, fitting the Taliban strategy of creating instability.
The troubles have hit Herat’s booming economy, built on business confidence and trade with Iran. The tallest structure is a tower block left unfinished since its owners told the Turkish builders to cease work.
Ghulam Qadir Akbar, head of the Herat chamber of commerce, says more than 80 businessmen or their family members have been kidnapped in the past two years. Many have headed for Dubai or neighbouring countries in central Asia. “Bring back Ismail Khan and there will be peace,” he says.