Malalai Kakar assassinated outside her home by Taliban

[Ryan in Maine]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080928/wl_afp/afghanistanunrestwomenpolice

by Nasrat Shoaib Sun Sep 28, 9:32 AM ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept 28, 2008 (AFP) - Taliban gunmen shot dead the most high-profile female police officer in Afghanistan and wounded her teenaged son as she left home to go to work Sunday, officials and the militia said.

Attackers waiting outside the home of Malalai Kakar, head of the city of Kandahar's department of crimes against women, opened fire on her car as she left, Kandahar government spokesman Zalmay Ayoobi told AFP.

"Today between 7 am and 8 am when she was (in her car) outside her house and going to her job, some gunmen attacked," Ayoobi said.

"Malalai Kakar died in front of her house. Her son was wounded."

A doctor in the city's main hospital said Kakar, in her late 40s, had been shot in the head.

"She died on the spot and her son was badly injured and is in a coma," he said on condition of anonymity.

Her son, aged 15, had been driving Kakar to work, police said. The boy later came out of the coma but was in a serious condition.

A spokesman for the extremist Taliban movement, which targets government officials as part of a growing deadly insurgency, said that the assassins were from his group.

"We killed Malalai Kakar," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP. "She was our target, and we successfully eliminated our target."

President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack, saying in a statement that it was an "act of cowardice" by the "enemies of the peace and welfare and reconstruction of Afghanistan."

The European Mission branch in Afghanistan said Kakar had been an "example" in her country and her murder was "particularly abhorrent."

The interior ministry praised her as a "brave hero and loyal to her profession."

Kakar, a mother of six, was regularly profiled in international media and was known for her courage in one of Afghanistan's most conservative provinces.

A captain in the police force and the most senior policewoman in Kandahar, she headed a team of about 10 women police officers and had reportedly received numerous death threats.

Kandahar is the birthplace of the extremist Taliban, who are mounting a growing insurgency that targets government officials.

During their 1996-2001 hold on power, the Taliban stopped women from working outside the home and even leaving home without a male relative and an all-covering burqa.

Kakar was the first woman to enrol in the Kandahar police force after the 2001 ouster of the Taliban and had been involved in investigating crimes against women and children, and conducting house searches.

The head of Kandahar province's women's affairs department was killed in a similar way two years ago.

And in June gunmen shot dead a female police officer in the western province of Herat in what was believed to be the first assassination of a female police officer in the war-torn country.

Bibi Hoor, 26, was on her way home when two armed men on motorbikes opened fire, killing her instantly. It was not clear who killed her or why.

Afghanistan's police force was destroyed by the time the Taliban were removed and is being rebuilt with international assistance. It numbers about 80,000 people, including a few hundred women.

About 750 policemen have been killed in the past six months, mostly in insurgency-linked violence sweeping the country.

In other violence linked to a Taliban-led insurgency, a government official said police had ambushed and killed 17 Taliban insurgents in Helmand province on Saturday.

The US-led coalition said meanwhile it killed six militants in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday.

If the US pulled out sooner than later, wouldn't it feel like throwing these folks to the wolves? They quote the span between '96-'01 when the Taliban had a big presence. Well, aren't we the ones who allowed them to eat their meals without being afraid of getting shelled or hit by a stray round? These folks were literally eating breakfast to the sound of shelling. Aren't we the ones who enabled women to get back into their workplace, even after professions such as law and medicine and teaching had women almost totally stripped from their ranks?

I don't understand the whole "pull out now" strategy I hear thrown around. What are the benefits to a pull out other than our troops being deployed somewhere else?

[The Annoyed Man]

I'm afraid the wolves have been nibbling on the Afghanis since around March 2003.

[De Selby]

What are the benefits to a pull out other than our troops being deployed somewhere else?

A pull out will likely rob the "Taliban" (just means students) of its recruitment and support enginge-it was a hugely unpopular government that evaporated overnight in the face of the invasion 2001.

The US backed Karzai government, with police like this woman who was murdered, has been so incompetent and ravenous when it comse to robbing its population, that the Taliban is actually coming back as the proponent "law and order"; and from the looks of things, the Afghans as a whole prefer their predictable brutality to the random rape, thievery, and murder that they get from Karzai.

With this particular article, it's not like the Taliban care if it's a woman or not...they kill male operatives of the government just as handily.  The Karzai people are the same woman hating, backwards despots as the Taliban, so it's not like women's rights is a reason to support either.

One of the stories that's been running through the press, and that is a huge propaganda tool for the Taliban, btw, is the way that the Karzai government protects its members and relatives from repeated charges of raping little girls in various parts of the country.  The stories of the families coming out and demanding justice because their daughters have been raped is one of the many things that is destroying the credibility of the government there.

[Manedwolf]

Of course they care if it's a woman.

Any woman who does not act like a possession, who dares take a job, drive herself, or appear in public without a male relative and her head covered is to be killed.

A BBC correspondent there was shocked because men in a passing truck hit her with a stone for walking alone, and she had her head covered and everything...!

If it's not seventh century, it must be destroyed.

[De Selby]

Of course they care if it's a woman.

Any woman who does not act like a possession, who dares take a job, drive herself, or appear in public without a male relative and her head covered is to be killed.

A BBC correspondent there was shocked because men in a passing truck hit her with a stone for walking alone, and she had her head covered and everything...!

If it's not seventh century, it must be destroyed.

I agree with you that the Taliban believe this.  The problem is that it's true of Karzai's government as well. Women's rights is clearly not the basis for choosing between the Taliban or Karzai.  The Taliban have a use for women in their warfare and propaganda also, but then generally abuse women as a matter of policy.  Same for Karzai's kleptocracy, so that is hardly the issue here.

And when it comes to killing government employees, I assure you that a simple search will reveal that no government employee is safe in Afghanistan, regardless of gender. 

Edit: There is an explanation for the identical abuse of women between Karzai and the Taliban...they are of the same ethnic group, and generally abide by the same legal code...Pashtunwali traditions are apparently extremely abusive towards women, and both Karzai and the Taliban are of that culture.

[Antibubba]

I'm afraid the wolves have been nibbling on the Afghanis since aroundMarch 2003 the 1700s.

Fixed it for you.