By IINA,
Kabul : An Afghan parliament member has been killed in a gun attack in the southern province of Kandahar, a district governor has said.
“Habibullah Jan was shot dead by unknown gunmen while going home on Friday evening,” Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, governor of Zharai district in Kandahar province said. Jan was killed hours after he had visited an Afghan army compound in Zharai. Zharai is a particularly dangerous part of Kandahar where Canadian forces from the Nato alliance have battled fighters loyal to the Taliban over the last two years.
Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban, denied that their fighters had any involvement in the killing. “This is not our work,” Ahmadi, speaking from an unknown location, told AFP by telephone. Jan was a military commander in the area before he become a member of parliament. While Afghan officials are regularly targeted by opposition fighters, Jan’s killing is the first of a parliamentary member in months.
He is the 10th member of parliament to be killed since Afghanistan’s first democratically chosen parliament was elected in 2005.