KABUL, 18 September 2003 — Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai has ordered the dismissal of Kabul’s police chief, two weeks after he took part in the bulldozing of 30 houses in Kabul, an aide said yesterday.
Mohammad Basir Salangi had the houses destroyed in an apparent move to pave the way for new buildings for senior Afghan officials. His actions prompted a series of objections from a UN official and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).
The aide, who refused to be named, said former communist Gen. Baba Jan, who helped the mujahideen in toppling the last communist regime in Afghanistan in 1992, has replaced the police chief Mohammad Basir Salangi. However, Salangi said when asked whether he would accept Karzai’s order: “I am still at the office. There is no order yet for my removal. I will see what to do if they are going to sack me.”
In recent months, the numbers of crimes in Kabul have increased including killing, theft and kidnapping. On Thursday, the Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said that in addition to terrorism, contributing factors worsening Afghanistan’s security include internal fighting between commanders and warlords in the north, and crime, particularly in the capital Kabul.
Meanwhile, Taleban commanders in two Afghan provinces are plotting attacks on United Nations workers, US-led forces and Afghan officials, the United States warned yesterday. The alert came a day after aid agencies rations outside Kabul, as a spate of armed attacks had made reconstruction work almost impossible.
