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Mentally ill ex-Taliban official arrested
A former Taliban official recently arrested by the Afghan government from Ghazni province and charged with murder of President Hamid Karzai's father is mentally handicapped. Asadullah Saddozai was apprehended along with Mulla Shaheedkhel, a former deputy education minister and 80 other Taliban supporters after being accused of planning terrorist attacks. The Afghan interior ministry later said in a statement that the men were receiving money from Pakistani cities of Quetta and Karachi.
| Comes as a surprise, huh? |
It alleged that the detained Taliban were involved in burning of schools, distribution of anti-US leaflets and other anti-state activities.
| Gotta burn those schools. Leave them running and Islam won't be a religion of bliss... |
Saddozai, who used to work in the intelligence department in the Taliban regime, was specifically charged with the murder of Abdul Ahad Karzai, father of President Hamid Karzai, and a former Mujahideen commander Sarkatib. The senior Karzai was murdered some years ago in Quetta while Sarkatib, who was loyal to former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was slain in Kandahar. According to some Pakistan-based Afghans including a journalist, Saddozai had become mentally ill more than a year ago and visited Peshawar to seek medical treatment.
| Cheeze. How do you tell when these guys become mentally ill? Their turbans unravel? |
They said that Saddozai was under treatment of leading psychiatrists in Peshawar for sometime and was still on medication.
"Huh huh. Want shome more medication, Saddo?"
"Why, yesh, thank you, doctor... Hey! You got more'n I did!" |
They felt Saddozai on account of his mental illness spoke incoherently and made fantastic claims.
| "I know how to read and write! I've never killed anybody just for fun! My mother loves me!" |
Some of his claims were that he was the one who murdered Karzai's father, Sarkatib and other anti-Taliban commanders and politicians. It isn't known if the Afghan authorities holding Saddozai have found out by now that Saddozai is mentally healthy or ill.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-05-07 |
