Lutfullah Mashal ( ps, لطف الله مشعل) is a politician in Afghanistan who last served as spokesman for the

National Directorate of Security The National Directorate of Security (NDS; ps, د ملي امنیت لوی ریاست; prs, ریاست عمومی امنیت ملی) was the national intelligence and security service of Afghanistan. The headquarters of the NDS was in Kabul, ...

(NDS). Prior to that he was Governor of Laghman province. He is also a writer and a poet.

Biography

Lutfullah Mashal was born in the Shah Shaheed area of

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

city on 1971. He graduated from the

University of Peshawar The University of Peshawar ( ps, د پېښور پوهنتون; hnd, پشور یونیورسٹی; ur, ; abbreviated UoP; known more popularly as Peshawar University) is a public research university located in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pa ...

in 1994 with a master's degree in English literature. From 2003 to 2005, Mashal served as a senior spokesperson and adviser in the Ministry of the Interior. After receiving a scholarship from Kent University, he moved to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

where he obtained a master's degree in Political Science and International Conflict Analysis. He is the author of several books in

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

and was a reporter for the American newspaper ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' from 2001 to 2002. Mashal has also appeared on major news channels reporting/discussing terrorism, taliban and radical insurgents in Afghanistan/south Asia. Mashal has written extensively on Al-Qaeda and the emergence of Taliban and radical Islamist groups in Afghanistan. He has also researched on the drugs factor in the conflict of Afghanistan. Mashal was governor of the Laghman province from 2008 to 2010 and was replaced by

Mohammad Iqbal Azizi Mohammad Iqbal Azizi is an ethnic Pashtun politician in Afghanistan, who served as Governor of Laghman from March 2010 to September 2012. He previously served as head of the Education Department in Nangarhar Province. Early life Azizi was born ...

. In 2011, he was appointed as Spokesperson and Special Assistant to the DG of the National Directorate of Security of Afghanistan NDS.

Books

* "''De Lmar Pa Latoon''" - ''د لمر په لټون'' *''The Drugs Factor in the Conflict of Afghanistan''

References

External links

* http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/27249 * http://usa.mediamonitors.net/Headlines/The-Dancing-Dinosaurs-of-the-Civil-War-in-Afghanistan * http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1228/p4s1-wosc.html * http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wvmr/news.newsmain/article/0/0/340010/Top.Stories/Al.Qaeda's.Village.Lifeline 1971 births Living people Governors of Laghman Province Pashtun politicians 20th-century Afghan poets People from Kabul 21st-century Afghan poets Pashtun poets Pashtun male writers {{Afghanistan-politician-stub