QUETTA: An ‘anti-Afghan Taliban’ former police officer was shot dead by unknown gunmen in the provincial capital, police said on Monday.

Police officials said the incident took place on Sunday in The Eastern Bypass area.

The gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Abdul Samad Achakzai who was riding a motorbike along with his brother.

“Abdul Samad Achakzai suffered multiple bullet injuries and died on the spot, while his brother remained unhurt. However, one passerby suffered a bullet injury,” Manzoor Ahmed, a senior police officer of the area, said, adding that soon after the incident police reached the area and took the body and the injured to Civil Hospital.

Samad Achakzai was a police commander in the previous Ashraf Ghani government in Kabul.

A former adviser to former Afghan president Ghani on public affairs, Akhtar Muhammad Badezai, on his Facebook page confirmed that Achakzai was a police commander and served as deputy commander in Panjvai district of Kandahar province till the Afghan Taliban captured Kabul in August last year.

Achakzai also served as police commander in Urazgan province. He was a close relative of General Abdul Raziq Achakzai, who was the chief of Kandahar border police.

The former Afghan police officer, after the fall of the Ghani government, escaped from Kandahar and moved to Quetta. According to police, his brother has an Afghan refugee card, but Achakzai was living with him illegally as he had no residency documents.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2022