Abdul Razziq - An Afghan Border Police Colonel Keeping Spin Boldak, Afghanistan Quiet - In a Corrupt Way

A war correspondent, Rajiv Chandresekarar of The Washington Post, has provided us with a somewhat complimentary view of a corrupt Colonel in the Afghan Border Police (ABP).  Col Abdul Razziq is in command of 3,000 uniformed policemen and several thousand militiamen in the south of Afghanistan headquartered in Spin Boldak.  Col Razziq is extremely corrupt yet very efficient when it comes to providing security and chasing the Taliban.

Accusations against him include supporting the Karzai family with proceeds taking from cross-border tariffs of goods coming in from Pakistan, rigging ballot boxes in two past elections to ensure Karzai and his cronies get elected, involvement in the drug trade, and paying bribes to ensure his position of power does not diminish.

Coalition leaders seem perplexed on what to do with Razziq.  While he stands for everything that is bad about the corrupt Afghan government he is one of the few officials within the government that actually gets anything done. U.S. Army Special Forces are reported to enjoy a good relationship with him.  So for the time being he stays in place and in power.

Read the rest of the article in "The Afghan Robin Hood", The Washington Post, October 4, 2010.