2. Previous Functions:
District Chief Marja District (20100122-20100717 sacked)
Helmand Peace Council, Deputy Head  (20110400)

3. Biodata:
Haji Abdul Zahir Aryan was born 1951 in Helmand Province. He moved with his family to Rodgau, Germany, in 1989. In Germany he worked in a Holiday Inn Hotel and at a laundry service.

Provincial Governor Mangal said that a request was made of Interpol to check whether the new Marjah district governor Aryan had any outstanding warrants or was being sought. He said Interpol said he was not on any watch list or wanted for any crime. If Zahir isn't up to the task, Mangal said, "We will dismiss him. If he doesn't have the ability, if he doesn't bring law and order and security, then we will dismiss him." He is the Afghan official tapped to govern a Taliban-free Marja.

Helmand provincial governor Gulab Mangal selected him for the post largely because he is a friend, but in meetings of tribal elders before the operation, he was primarily a backbencher. Zahir paid his first visit to this strife-torn community 20100215, imploring residents to forsake the Taliban and promising employment programs as an inducement for local men to put down their weapons. Zahir, a native of southern Afghanistan who spent the past 15 years self exiled in Germany. He elicited only a tepid endorsement from the men who gathered to meet him. Their questions made clear that the Taliban still enjoys deep support here, while the Afghan government is almost universally loathed, illuminating the deep challenge facing U.S. Marines and civilian stabilization specialists as they try to establish basic civic administration. Residents said they were less interested in government services than being left alone.

Zahir arrived in Marja aboard a U.S. Marine MV-22 Osprey helicopter with a contingent of Marine officers and a small retinue of tribal elders who have been living in other parts of Helmand province. He stayed in Marja for only about two hours, not venturing more than 100 yards from where his aircraft landed. He did not travel to the site of the new municipal center the Marines plan to construct. The choice of new “district governor,” Haji Abdul Zahir, does not make sense. Zahir has lived in Germany for the last 15 years and had never set foot in Marja until two weeks ago.

He is also widely seen as an unassertive crony of Gulab Mangal, the provincial governor. Zahir’s main power rival in the area is Abdul Rahman Jan, a fearsome former police chief whose forces had such a nasty reputation that people in Marja reached out to the Taliban for protection. The international force needs to either find more appropriate candidates or hold an election.

Haji Zahir was sacked due to incompetence after six month in office..

Later Haji Zahir became a member of the Helmand Peace Council and was shot dead  20110424 at 8:30pm in the Kart-i-Lagan area of the provincial capital, Lashkargah. Arian was invited for dinner by the head of Helmand's provincial peace council, Najib Popal, when the gunmen broke into Popal's house and shot Arian dead.