Spin Boldak police chief fired over insider attack

KANDAHAR CITY (PAN): The Spin Boldak police chief has been dismissed after two Afghan policemen turned their guns on foreign troops, killing one and injuring another in the southern province of Kandahar, an official said on Tuesday.

An Afghan interpreter with the international troops was also injured in the latest green-on-blue attack that took place on Sunday in the border town on US soldiers.

This year about 10 percent of the foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan have died at the hands of men in Afghan military and police uniforms. Ten American troops have been killed in such attacks over the past two weeks.

US president Barak Obama has expressed his deep concern over the attacks, saying he would soon be reaching out to his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai about the incidents.

Kandahar governor’s spokesman Javed Faisal told Pajhwok Afghan News the Spin Boldak police chief Col. Gul Mohammad had been fired for negligence to duty and his inablility to prevent the shooting.

Mohammad, who had been on the post for the last one year, had previously served as the Takhta Pul district police chief.

“The Spin Boldak police chief was terminated for failing to prevent suspected people from joining the police force. He also failed to prevent the attack on foreign troops,” Faisal said.

The former police chief is being interrogated and if found guilty, will be treated according to the country’s military law, the official said.

Mohammad is the first Afghan official to be dismissed over insider attacks that had so far killed 40 foreign troops, most of them Americans, this year.

The Taliban have claimed almost all of the attacks, with the Afghan army and police trying to weed out infiltrators with undercover intelligence agencies and background checks on new recruits.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey who on arrived in Afghanistan on Monday discussed with Afghan officials the green-on-blue attacks.

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