Kandahar, July 26 (ANI): The assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai, a step brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, two weeks ago, has forced that country's tribal elite to adopt a wait and watch approach to future developments in the Kandahar region.
A majority of them are calculating their next move and desrious of wanting a piece of the future, and most of them are strong men with guns, reports the New York Times.
According to Haji Agha Lalai, a tribal leader, said Ahmed Wali Karzai was the lid that contained the tinder box situation that exists in Kandahar.
"He was a political enforcer for his brother; a kind of C.E.O. of vast economic and smuggling enterprises; go-to man for the Americans; and a bulwark against the insurgency," Lalai adds.
He wielded power with a Machiavellian ability that made many elders chafe. They say they are unlikely to tolerate that again.
With President Hamid Karzai's family split by rivalries and the brother he appointed to succeed Ahmed Wali as leader of the Populzai tribe seen as weak, elders predict that the family's, and by extension the president's, power in the south is waning.
All the possible successors to Ahmed Wali as de facto leader in Kandahar are seen as flawed, suggesting that greater uncertainty and insecurity lie ahead in the scramble to control a rich prize.
Kandahar is the only major city in a rural region dominated by the lucrative poppy trade that supplies the world with most of its opium.
Billions of dollars have poured in from American military for security contracts, and billions more from United States and British foreign aid programs. A brisk smuggling trade to and from Pakistan to circumvent Afghan customs yields large payouts to corrupt officials.
The Karzai family's loyalty to the president has begun to fracture openly, with fights over money as one motive.
"I completely disagree with President Karzai on all levels, on the military side, on security and on economics; we are completely at odds," the NYT quoted brother Mahmoud Karzai, as saying.
Hashmat Karzai, a powerful cousin in Kandahar, has also been battling President Karzai over the outcome of the election from which he was disqualified after accusations of fraud.
Several contenders for provincial governor are outside the family. Among them is Gul Agha Shirzai, a former governor of Kandahar and current governor of Jalalabad. He has a reputation for promoting economic development and for demanding a share of every contract.
Another possibility is the current mayor, Ghulam Haider Hamidi, who was close to Ahmed Wali, but whom many Kandaharis describe as distant because he spent many years in the United States.
There is also Arif Noorzai, Ahmed Wali's brother-in-law, who is often described as having links to drug smugglers and ties to the same private security industry that enriched many close to Ahmed Wali, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War, a nonpartisan policy research group.
Tribal elders complained Ahmed Wali bypassed them in favor of junior members and did not seek their counsel.
"He did it to all the tribes, and instability and resentment is the result," said Haji Mohammed Ehsan, a member of the provincial council and a member of the Noorzai tribe. (ANI)
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