Gul Agha Sherzai

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Gul Agha Sherzai (Template:Langx; born 1954), also known as Mohammad Shafiq,<ref name="Biographies of 10 presidential runners"/> is a politician and former warlord in Afghanistan. He is a former governor of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan.<ref name=Harpers2009-12> Template:Cite magazine</ref> He previously served as Governor of Kandahar province, in the early 1990s and from 2001 until 2003. In October 2013, Sherzai resigned from his post as governor and formally announced himself as a candidate for Afghanistan's 2014 Presidential Election, and served as the minister of border and tribal affairs until the Taliban captured Afghanistan again in 2021.<ref name="Biographies of 10 presidential runners"/>

Early yearsEdit

Sherzai was born in 1954 in Kandahar province<ref name="Biographies of 10 presidential runners"/> His father Haji Abdul Latif, proprietor of a small tea shop in Kandahar, 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 (Pashto for "son of lion") as his last name. He is an ethnic Pashtun from the Barakzai tribe. His father was locally known as Haji Latif Sagwan, ("Sagwan" is a term used for a "dog fighter") which is a derogatory term used for gamblers, who was a well-known dog fighter in southern Afghanistan. Sherzai would later collaborate with then-Governor of Kandahar, General Nur ul-Haq Ulumi, to stage fake attacks on the Afghan military, resulting in the ISI increasing supplies sent to Sherzai, who would sell them in Kandahar with the blessings of the PDPA government.<ref>Besides the Popalzai, the Barakzai are the second biggest tribe in Kandahar province. The most prominent member of the Barakzai is Gul Agha Shirzai.
University of Bonn (ZEF) Center for Development Research Department of Political and Cultural Change Understanding Local Violence Security Arrangements in Kandahar, Kunduz and Paktia (Afghanistan) (Amu Darya Series Paper No 3, May 2006)</ref><ref name="Wars Afghan 334">Template:Cite book</ref>

After the collapse of the PDPA government in 1992, Sherzai served as Governor of Kandahar.<ref name="Harpers2009-12" /> 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 administrationEdit

Sherzai's capture of Kandahar in late 2001, with assistance from American special forces and Hamid Karzai, marked the first time territory in southern Afghanistan had been captured from the Taliban forces.<ref>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.</ref>

According to Matthieu Aikins, writing in Harper's Magazine Karzai appointed a Mullah Naqib to the Governorship of Kandarhar.<ref name=Harpers2009-12/> 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 KandaharEdit

In 2004, Sherzai was appointed Governor of Nangarhar Province, after a spell as "Special Advisor" to Hamid Karzai.

File:Afghan governors in 2009.jpg

Sherzai speaking in 2009 with the governors of Nuristan, Laghman and Kunar province.

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In January 2009, an article by Ahmad Majidyar of the American Enterprise Institute included Sherzai on a list of fifteen possible candidates in the 2009 Afghan Presidential election.<ref name=AeiAfghanElections2009> Template:Cite news</ref> In May 2009, he announced that he would not be a candidate.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Nevertheless, his name was on an August 2009 ballot, and preliminary results placed him 17th in a field of 38.<ref name=Sabawoon>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name="Biographies of 10 presidential runners">Template:Cite news</ref>

Since 2021, Sherzai pledged allegiance to the Taliban government and he had also congratulated their victory in the American War in Afghanistan after they took over Kabul.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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