KANDAHAR, July 23: Unidentified gunmen on Saturday shot dead a judge in southern Afghanistan, where a government official and a policeman were also killed in separate attacks.

Two gunmen killed Qazi Namatullah, a district judge in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province, as he walked to a mosque for Fajr prayers in Kandahar city.

“The Taliban were riding a motorbike, and they managed to escape the area,” he said.

In another incident Mohammed Shafi, the district administration chief of Shawalikot, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb blast at the gate of his family home.

“At this stage we don’t know who was behind the attack,” he said. “We are investigating the case.”

In Shinkay district of neighbouring Zabul province, US and Afghan troops launched an operation to arrest two Taliban commanders, killing one and arresting the other, an official said.

“They surrounded the area and in one-hour exchange of fire a Taliban commander, Mullah Mohammed Kabir, was killed. Kabir was a district level commander,” Shinkay district governor Mohammed Wazir said.

In an attack on Friday, a highway policeman was killed on the road to the western city of Herat, just outside Kandahar in Zhari district.

More than 770 people have been killed in political violence in Afghanistan so far this year compared with 850 in all of last year.

KIDNAPPED & FREED: Kidnappers released two election workers and a third hostage unharmed in northeast Afghanistan on Saturday, said an official with the country’s UN-backed electoral commission.