October 27, 2003	Monday	Sha’aban 30, 1424

KABUL, Oct 26: Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Ahmed Ali Jalali on Sunday announced a reshuffle of key security posts in troubled northern province Balkh and hinted at removing two rival warlords from their army command posts.

Jalali flew to the Balkh capital Mazar-i-Sharif to announce the sacking of the governor, police chief, deputy police chief and mayor, interior ministry officials said.

He also foreshadowed combining the region’s two rival military corps, led by feuding warlords General Atta Mohammad and Abdul Rashid Dostam, and appointing a neutral commander from Kabul.

“The Seventh and Eighth Corps will be combined in the future, and the commander of this corps will come from Kabul,” Jalali said during a meeting with the outgoing and incoming security officials in Mazar-i-Sharif.

The key change announced on Sunday is the dismissal of governor Mohammad Ishaq Rahgozar, Atta’s ally from the Jamiat faction he heads.

“The changes have been made based on the suggestion of the interior minister and the decision of the security council and were approved by the cabinet,” Gull Nabi Ahmadzai, Jalali’s chief of staff, told AFP.

The director of Balkh’s state university Engineer Habibullah has been appointed acting governor, Ahmadzai said.

Rahgozar would probably be appointed as a governor in another province, deputy interior minister Hilaluddin Hilal told AFP.

A former police chief of southern province Kandahar, Mohammed Akram Khakraiswall, has been brought in as Balkh’s new police chief, Hilal said.

The reshuffle is the first of reforms promised by Jalali when he brokered a ceasefire in mid-October between Atta and Dostam, after the latest clashes between their forces left at least 10 fighters dead and 30 injured.

Atta, who heads the mainly Tajik Jamiat faction, is commander of the Seventh Corps while Dostam, who heads the largely Uzbek Junbish faction, commands the Eighth Corps.

The two have long competed for control of the north and clashes frequently erupt between their forces. The violence is one of the biggest headaches for President Hamid Karzai as he tries to establish central government authority across the war-shattered country.

A senior official told AFP last week that the government was considering transferring Atta and Dostam to Kabul.

Atta’s spokesman General Abdul Sabor said Atta would only agree to move to Kabul only if Dostam also accepted a transfer.—AFP