Pictures on Taliban social media accounts showed the former Afghan police chief Abdul Jalil Bakhtawar after insurgents said he had switched sides to join them.
New York Times: This Afghan General Fought the Taliban for Years. Now He Has Joined Them.
Another influential family was split by the war when a retired province police chief defected to the insurgency. His son remains deputy governor.
KABUL, Afghanistan — As a onetime police chief of the restive province of Farah in western Afghanistan, Gen. Abdul Jalil Bakhtawar was a dogged enemy of the Taliban.
Even when he faded into retirement, he always had a foot in the war. The insurgents sent suicide bombers after him. His sons, one growing to lead the local assembly and another serving as deputy governor, were on the front lines. When the assembly chief son died in a helicopter crash in a Taliban area, the insurgents took his body hostage for days.
Despite that, in a shocking turn that officials say could hurt the security of Farah Province, the retired general switched sides on Sunday, joining the Taliban.
The defection fits right into the Taliban’s propaganda push, as they focus on chipping away at the legitimacy of the Afghan government after signing a deal with the United States that has started the withdrawal of the American forces.
It is also one of the highest-profile cases yet of how the two-decade war is splitting families, sometimes pitting fathers against sons.
“We regret that the retired general has joined the enemies of peace and stability in Afghanistan, and has chosen violence over a life of dignity,” said Tariq Aryan, the spokesman for Afghanistan’s interior ministry.
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WNU Editor:There must be a lot of bad blood in this family.
1 comment:
That'll be some heavily armed domestic dispute! All units aporach with caution! 🙏😲
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