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Updated October 18th, 2018 at 20:39 IST

Kandahar: Top Afghan police chief killed in shooting on US security meeting

Kandahar Police Chief General Abdul Raziq was killed in an attack at Kandahar Governor Office, as per local media. The Police Chief was vocal against Pakistan sponsored terrorism.

Reported by: Digital Desk
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Top Afghan Police Chief General Abdul Raziq was killed in an attack at Kandahar Governor Office, as per local media. The Police Chief was vocal against Pakistan sponsored terrorism.

The Kandahar police chief was killed when members of the provincial governor’s elite guards turned their guns on their own colleagues and American troops who were present at a high-level security meeting in province.

Afghan officials have said three top Kandahar province officials have been killed by their own guards in an attack at a security meeting that also wounded two U.S. troops.

The Taliban said General Abdul Raziq, the powerful police chief of Kandahar province with a fierce reputation for brutality, was the target of the shooting.

"The shooting happened as they were leaving the meeting," the official said, adding two members of Afghanistan's spy agency also were injured.

Two American troops were also wounded in the shooting.

Meanwhile, the Indian Prime Minister's Office has expressed shock over the dastardly terrorist attack in Kandahar.

A Taliban spokesman who claimed responsibility for the attack told The Associated Press that U.S. Gen. Scott Miller, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, was the target. NATO officials say Miller escaped unharmed.

Kandahar’s deputy provincial governor Agha Lala Dastageri said powerful provincial police chief Abdul Razik and the province’s intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin died immediately in the attack and provincial governor Zalmay Wesa died of his injuries at a hospital.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi took responsibility for the attack. He too said all three officials were killed.

The security meeting inside the sprawling provincial governor’s residence was being held ahead of Saturday’s parliamentary elections.

Afghanistan is on high alert ahead of the long-delayed legislative elections, scheduled for October 20, after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot. More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house, including doctors, mullahs, and the sons of former warlords.

The election process has already been marred by bloody violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months.

(With AP Inputs) 

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Published October 18th, 2018 at 20:39 IST

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