Ghulam Haider Hamidi ( ps, غلام حیدر حمیدی, also spelled Ghulam Haidar Hameedi and also known as Henry Hamidi; 1945 – 27 July 2011) was the Mayor of
Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a List of cities in Afghanistan, city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population ...
in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. his family fled to Pakistan, then to the United States.
Hamidi graduated from Kabul University with a degree in finance. He spent a brief period in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
and lived in the United States for almost nineteen years. He settled in the
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
area, and worked as an accountant at Trans Am Travel, a wholesale travel agency in
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...
. In 2007, he returned to Afghanistan when the country was under the
Karzai administration
Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repu ...
.
In the late afternoon of 26 July 2011 a plot was discovered by the SFA Team 5 that there was an active plot to assassinate Hamidi by a turban bomb. The team thwarted the attack that day. The team was not present the following morning on 27 July 2011. Hamidi was killed at the municipal building in Kandahar on the morning of July, 27 2011 by a man who had hidden explosives inside his turban. As Hamidi greeted elders in the morning as he often did a man reached up and touched two wires together setting off the explosives killing himself and Hamidi. The
target killing
Targeted killing is a form of murder or assassination carried out by governments outside a judicial procedure or a battlefield.
Since the late 20th century, the legal status of targeted killing has become a subject of contention within and betw ...
or
assassination
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...
was blamed on the
Taliban insurgents, who are guided and supported by foreign elements such as Pakistan's
ISI spy agency
and
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
's
Revolutionary Guard's
Quds Force
The Quds Force ( fa, نیروی قدس, niru-ye qods, Jerusalem Force) is one of five branches of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army's Iraq War ...
.
Two other associates of
Afghan President
The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was constitutionally the head of state and head of government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (2004–2021) and Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan Armed Forces.
On 15 August 2021, as ...
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai (; Pashto/ fa, حامد کرزی, , ; born 24 December 1957) is an Afghan statesman who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Repub ...
– his half brother
Ahmad Wali Karzai
Ahmed Wali Karzai ( ps, احمد ولي کرزی, , 1961 – 12 July 2011) was a Politics of Afghanistan ...
and
Jan Mohammad Khan
Jan Mohammad Khan (died July 17, 2011) was a politics of Afghanistan, politician in Afghanistan, who served as List of governors of Oruzgan, Governor of Oruzgan Province from January 2002 to March 2006, member of the National Assembly of Afghan ...
– were assassinated in the weeks that preceded Haider's killing.
Two of Hamidi's deputies and a police chief were previously assassinated. Hamidi himself survived a 2009 bomb attack on his car.
References
2011 deaths
1945 births
Assassinated mayors
Pashtun people
Afghan politicians
Mayors of Kandahar
Mayors of places in Afghanistan
{{Afghanistan-mayor-stub