Abdul Samad Khaksar

Abdul Samad Khaksar
عبدالصمد خاکسار
Deputy Minister of Interior
In office
1996–2001
Minister of Intelligence
In office
1994–1996
Personal details
Born1960 (1960)
Kandahar, Afghanistan
Died14 January 2006(2006-01-14) (aged 45–46)
Kandahar, Afghanistan
OccupationPolitician, Taliban member

Mullah Abdul Samad Khaksar (1960 – 14 January 2006),[1] also referred to as Mohammad Khaksar,[2] served as Minister or Deputy Minister of Interior for Afghanistan under the Taliban government.[3]

He was born around 1960 in Kandahar.[citation needed] He received a madrasa education and fought under Hezbi Islami commander Mawlawi Abdul Raziq Muhammad Hasan in Kandahar during the 1980s.[citation needed]

He was the Taliban Intelligence Minister from 1994 to 1996 and was later appointed as deputy Interior Minister from 1996 to 2001 during the Taliban rule.[4] Khaksar became unhappy with al-Qaeda's influence in Afghanistan.[2] He reportedly met Osama bin Laden in 1998 following US cruise missile strikes on Al-Qaeda bases and told him to leave Afghanistan.[4] He met with US officials in Peshawar in 1999, offering them help in dealing with bin Laden, but his offer was turned down.[4] He also became an informant for the Northern Alliance.[2]

He renounced the Taliban following the US-led invasion in 2001 and encouraged people to support the Northern Alliance.[4] Abdul Samad became a vocal critic of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In September 2005 he unsuccessfully ran for Afghanistan's new parliament.[2][5]

Abdul Samad was shot and killed while carrying groceries home with two[1] of his five children in Kandahar on 14 January 2006, by two men riding a motorcycle.[2] The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing,[5] with spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi saying that he was a traitor[1] whom they had been hunting for a long time.[2]

He was one of five individuals the United Nations officially removed from its sanction list in 2010.[6] The four other men were: Abdul Salam Zaeef, former ambassador to Pakistan; Abdul Satar Paktin, formerly the Taliban's Deputy Minister of Public Health; Muhammad Islam Mohammadi, former Governor of Bamiyan Province; and Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad Awrang, former envoy to the United Nations. Two of the other men were also deceased.[citation needed]

  1. ^ a b c Gall, Carlotta (15 January 2006). "Airstrike by U.S. Draws Protests From Pakistanis". New York Times. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Witte, Griff (15 January 2006). "Taliban Defector Is Assassinated: Former Intelligence Chief Secretly Turned to U.S. in 1999". Washington Post. Retrieved 15 January 2006.
  3. ^ John R. Bolton (2003). "Denied Persons Pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution". United States Federal Registry. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d Strick van Linschoten, Alex; Kuehn, Felix (2012). An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan. Oxford University Press. p. 477. ISBN 9780199977239. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  5. ^ a b Sand, Benjamin (15 January 2006). "Gunmen Assassinate Taleban Defector". Voice of America, Islamabad.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Un2010-07-30 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).