Gul Agha Sherzai
Gul Agha Sherzai گل آغا شیرزی | |
---|---|
Governor of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan | |
In office 12 July 2005 – October 2013 | |
Succeeded by | Maulvi Attaullah Ludin |
Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs of Afghanistan | |
In office 25 July 2017 – 31 August 2021 | |
Succeeded by | None (Islamic Republic of Afghanistan de facto abolished) |
Personal details | |
Born | 1954 (age 69–70) Kandahar Province, Kingdom of Afghanistan |
Political party | Independent |
Profession | Politician, former Mujahideen leader |
Gul Agha Sherzai (
Early years
Sherzai was born in 1954 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan[1] His father was Haji Abdul Latif, proprietor at a small tea shop in Kandahar who rose to become a famous Mujahideen commander. Sherzai took the name Gul Agha when he joined his father in the Mujahideen, who were fighting in the southern Afghanistan area against the Soviet and Afghan Government forces.
His father was later murdered and he added Sherzai (
After the collapse of the PDPA government in 1992, Sherzai served as Governor of Kandahar.[2] He was known outside of Afghanistan as one of the major warlords until around September 1994 when the Taliban began their conquest in Kandahar. Sherzai resigned from his post as governor and remained hidden until late 2001 in Pakistan.
The Karzai administration
Sherzai's capture of Kandahar in late 2001, with assistance from American
According to Matthieu Aikins, writing in Harper's Magazine Karzai appointed a Mullah Naqib to the Governorship of Kandarhar.[2] Aikins reported that American officials favored Sherzai over Karzai's choice, and encouraged him to oust Mullah Naqib.
In August 2003, Afghan President Karzai decreed that officials could no longer hold both military and civil posts, and replaced Sherzai with Yousef Pashtun as Governor of Kandahar.
Political career after Kandahar
In 2004, Sherzai was appointed Governor of Nangarhar Province, after a spell as "Special Advisor" to Hamid Karzai.
In July 2006, Sherzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt at a funeral outside Jalalabad. The attempt killed five police officers and wounded several more people, including some children. He opened the newly built highway connecting Jalalabad city with Torkham, which is one of the most popular border towns between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan President Karzai and Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz were also present during the inauguration.
In 2008 he met Barack Obama.[5]
In January 2009, an article by Ahmad Majidyar of the
Sherzai's brother is Abdul Raziq Sherzai, a commander who captured Kandahar airfield in 2001-02 and was subsequently made the Kandahar wing commander of the Afghan Air Force.[9]
On October 2, 2013, Sherzai resigned from his post as Governor of Nangarhar Province and formally announced himself as a candidate for Afghanistan's 2014 Presidential Election.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d "Biographies of 10 presidential runners". Pajhwok Afghan News (PAN). 26 October 2013. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
- ^ a b c Matthieu Aikins (December 2009). "The master of Spin Boldak: Undercover with Afghanistan's drug-trafficking border police". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved 2010-12-27.
- ^ Tomsen, Peter (2011). The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers. Public Affairs. p. 334.
- ^ Donald P. Wright and Contemporary Operations Study Team, A Different Kind of War : The United States Army in Operation ENDURING FREEDOM (OEF) October 2001-September 2005, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. : Combat Studies Institute Press, 2009.
- ISBN 9781846145858.
- ^ Ahmad Majidyar (January 2009). "Afghanistan's Presidential Election" (PDF). American Enterprise Institute. Archived from the original on 2009-09-08.
- ^ Starkey, Jerome; Sengupta, Kim (2009-01-23). "Obama ready to cut Karzai adrift". The Independent. London. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
- ^ "Preliminary Result of Afghanistan Presidential Contest". Sabawoon.com. 2009-08-20. Archived from the original on 2009-08-03. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
- ^ "Database". www.afghan-bios.info.
External links
- Media related to Gul Agha Sherzai at Wikimedia Commons
- BBC News - Afghanistan's Powerbrokers (Gul Agha Sherzai)
- Profile: Gul Agha Sherzai