Afghan Biographies

Zazai, Ajmal Khan


Name Zazai, Ajmal Khan
Ethnic backgr. Pashtun
Date of birth 1969
Function/Grade Chairman of United Afghan Tribes
History and Biodata

3. Biodata:
Ajmal Zazai was born 1969 in Zazai Valley of Paktia Province. He is an Afghan Canadian and decided to unite his 11 tribes (of many thousands in the country) to form a Tribal Police Force. His idea was to start the process from his valley, which he hoped would eventually create momentum across the country, against historic precedent. It was something his father, Raiss Afzal Khan Zazai, had tried unsuccessfully in 1984 when he formed the Zazi Tribal Unity to fight the Soviets.

Zazai appointed a former mujahuddin fighter, Amir Mohammed, as his head of security and gathered 30 armed men to protect the tribal chiefs of his valley.

Zazai, who is the chairman of United Afghan Tribes, a movement aimed at uniting disparate tribes, disagrees and decided to take some practical steps of his own to show that not only does the tribal structure exist but that it could be the best way of achieving Afghanistan’s goals.”

Just after the Soviets invaded eleven-year old Zazai and his family took refuge in Pakistan in 1980. Some years later Zazai ended up working for a medical charity as assistant director of public relations. During an ambush in mid-December 1990 his boss was killed. The bullets missed Zazai and he drove to the house of a French friend who was head of an NGO, and where he stayed for 15 days.

The UN contacted the Canadian government, and on January 1st, Zazai left Peshawar and moved to Toronto where he lived until 1997. “The Canadian government saved my life by offering me asylum.” One of his four children was born in Canada. He returned to Peshawar to help his father fight the Taliban, but few months later in 1998 he was imprisoned by Pakistan in a case he says was ‘concocted’ by the ISI (Pakistani intelligence). No charges were brought against him despite spending two and a half years in prison.

His father did not have such a lucky escape when an attempt was made on his life in 2000 on the orders, believes Zazai, of top Taliban officials. “My father led our Zazi tribes in the fight against the Soviets and later he organized the tribal chiefs from three (of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces) in order to raise up against the Taliban. Some ex-commanders were visiting him at our family home, which is where he was killed in his house in Peshawar in March 15, 2000. I have not found who gave the orders yet but the motive behind this was to bring a full stop to this movement and also to frighten the rest. My father was one of our country’s first industrialists. He and my uncle founded the first Afghan transport company, Mrastay Transport, and they established a raisin processing factory where over 600 people worked.” His father believed that the tribes were the past and future of Afghanistan. 



Zazai and his family now live in the United Arab Emirates, close to Afghanistan, where they moved after he survived two further attempts on his life in 2007 and 2008. Subsequently he asked his elders to meet with me in Kabul. In a guesthouse called the Cedar Inn in the Shar-e-Naw district, fifteen local tribesmen entered bearded, wearing turbans, shalwar kameez and covered with a patoo, the heavy blanket Afghan men wrap around themselves to keep out the bitter winter cold. They ranged in age from young to old, and each shook my hand.

“Al Qaeda came to Zazi with the help of the government,” says one of the tribal elders. He shows me a picture of two suspected al Qaeda operatives. They were with Mohammad Daoud, an MP from Zazi, supported by the Wahabi vice-president and former warlord Rasoul Sayyaf, and Commander Mohammed Nabi, the Border Police Chief. Zazai alleges that Nabi “works closely with the ISI and assists al Qaeda members to cross the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan. The enemy,” he continues, “in Zazi is in the government.”

Last Modified 2018-02-09
Established 2018-02-09