Afghan Biographies

Karzai, Yar Mohammad Haji Khan


Name Karzai, Yar Mohammad Haji Khan
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1948
Function/Grade Cousin of President Karzai
History and Biodata

3. Biodata:
khan_yar_mohammad_karzaiHaji Yar Mohammad Khan (Karzai) was born 1948 in Dand District, Kandahar Province. He is a tribal elder  from Alokozai tribe and a second cousin of President Karzai. He was killed by a shot into his head during a US-Special Forces nightraid on 20110309 in a house in  Karz area of Dand District in Kandahar Province. Karz is a village 7 Km south east of Kandahar City, where President Karzai and his familiy hails from. The Dand District Chief Hamdullah Nazak said, the troops conducted the raid in the night from 09. Mar. to 10. Mar. 2011 arriving by helicopter. Athough details are scarce, it appears that a major intelligence failure could have been responsible for the deaths after Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) issued a statement correcting an earlier press release that had claimed a man killed in operations in the area was the father of a Taliban leader. Mahmoud Karzai (brother of President Karzai) said he "smelled a very deep conspiracy" behind the episode, possibly involving a family feud within the Karzai clan that goes back to the jihad period of the 1980s.

Background:
Hashmat Karzai is accused to have have killed Waheed Karzai, son of Yar Mohammad Karzai,  in Karz Village (Dand District, Kandahar Province) in autumn 2009 reports New York Times 20091220. The killing has set off a bitter split within the family in Afghanistan and the United States, with charges, countercharges and claims of a cover-up by Afghan officials. Some relatives said they believed that the death was vengeance for an "honor killing" of Hashmat Karzai's father nearly 30 years ago by Yar Mohammad Karzai. For his part, Hashmat Karzai denies any role in Waheed's death, instead saying that the boy was shot by drug dealers intending to harm someone else. "They mixed up the houses and killed the boy by mistake," Hashmat Karzai said in a telephone interview from Dubai, where he is staying with his family. "I had nothing to do with it." While some family members accuse the Karzai government of stonewalling, they do not claim that the president played an active role in blocking an investigation. Instead, they blame several of his brothers, including Ahmed Wali Karzai, the political boss of Kandahar and southern Afghanistan, for trying to hush up relatives and forestall an official inquiry, perhaps with the president's knowledge. Frustrated by the seeming inaction on the killing, nearly a dozen family members agreed to be interviewed for this article.

Some, including Yar Mohammad Karzai, Sona Karzai and Zalal Karzai, who witnessed aspects of the shooting or its immediate aftermath, also provided documents about the killing. They include a complaint that Yar Mohammad Karzai filed with the Dand district police in Kandahar Province naming Hashmat Karzai as Waheed's assailant, the boy's hospital records and a death certificate stating that he died of gunshot wounds.

Hashmat_Waheed_killing

Last Modified 2011-03-10
Established 2011-03-10