Canada has lost an important partner for peace in Afghanistan
One of Canada’s best Afghan friends was assassinated in Kandahar last Thursday. Haji Fazluddin Agha, the governor of Panjwaii District, was killed when his car was struck by a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber on a road funded and paved with Canadian help and protection. Two of Haji Agha’s sons, two police officers and a civilian also died.
A charismatic bear of a man with a booming voice and a lush black beard, Haji Agha was a deeply pious Muslim. He detested Islamist zealots and was a fierce opponent of the Taliban and al-qaida. The former mujahedeen had come home to Panjwaii early last year at the behest of Afghan President Hamid Karzai who valued his political acumen and his ability to convince some hardcore Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.
Haji Agha “was considered an ally of Canada and will be remembered for his tireless work to bring peace and prosperity to his district and the entire country,” Foreign Minister John Baird said in a statement after the governor’s death.
The last time I saw Haji Agha it was under a glorious crescent moon about seven months ago. The governor had invited Brig.Gen. Dean Milner and Tim Martin, Canada’s top diplomat in southern Afghanistan, to a sumptuous, farewell banquet in the garden of his family compound in the farming village of Zalukhan.
Local elders and a few influential officials from Kandahar City feasted on lamb, goat and chicken served on a bed of rice. Also at the dinner were members of Milner’s leadership team, fresh troops from a U.S. army battalion from Alaska — the Arctic Wolves — who were to take over Canada’s battle space in a few days and a dozen U.S. navy Seals, special forces marines and commandos from Canada’s secretive JTF 2, who had emerged from the desert after a clandestine mission.
Before everyone sat facing each other across a square on futon like cushions to eat, Haji Agha held court in a receiving room, entertaining senior Canadians and Americans. As they sipped tea, he showed his guests the photograph of a third son mounted on the wall behind his desk, and explained: “He was shot by the Taliban as we talked on the telephone.”
Later, addressing the larger gathering in the garden, the governor said: “The Canadians are our greatest friends, so to have them here makes it a great day.”
More than almost any other Afghan in the south, Haji Agha had a reputation for getting things done. That is why Milner, the seventh and last Canadian commander in Kandahar and now deputy commander of a U.S. army corps in Texas, was keen to work with him.
“We knew we had a leader in Haji Fazluddin Agha,” Milner said.
Haji Agha was largely responsible for the opening of a school last spring that had been refurbished with the help of Canadian troops in the nearby town of Salavat.
Only 23 kids showed up for that first day of school, an event that had been delayed by four months by terrified parents because of threats of violence by the Taliban. They changed their minds after Haji Agha had roared that if they didn’t produce their children, he would “bring the army and the police to your homes and drag your kids to school.”
Salavat may have been the most dangerous town in Canada’s area of operations. As result of Haji Agha’s hectoring, the school soon had a full complement of 250 students and nine other refurbished schools funded by the Canadians opened not long thereafter.
A few weeks later, at the Panjwaii District Centre, Haji Khan gave another bravura speech to about 100 elders, Milner and U.S. army Gen. David Petraeus, then NATO’S Afghan commander and now director of the CIA.
“You can tell Mullah Omar [the Taliban leader], if there is anyone here who wants to fight us, bring it on,” the former mujahedeen fighter thundered. “Before 95 per cent of the people here were friends of the Taliban — now 95 per cent of them support the government. Those insurgents who want to create problems for the people of Panjwaii cannot come back.”
Though the Taliban is a shadow of what it once was in Panjwaii, a few have remained or returned and are still able to occasionally carry out spectacular targeted killings. Haji Khan was about 50 years old. He is believed to be survived by several wives and daughters.
Matthew Fisher is an international affairs columnist for Postmedia News.