General Abdul Raziq Achakzai was one of the most powerful, feared and controversial figures of the American war in Afghanistan. To his supporters, he was a hero who stood against the Taliban. To his enemies, he was a ruthless warlord whose forces were responsible for widespread abuses.
But who was the real General Raziq?
In this episode, I speak with Jacob Hagstrom, a former US Army officer, historian and author of 'America’s Favorite Warlord: The Life and Death of General Abdul Raziq of Kandahar', about the extraordinary rise and violent death of one of Afghanistan’s most consequential military commanders.
Born into a world of tribal rivalries, smuggling and blood feuds, Raziq lost family members to violence and spent part of his youth as a refugee in Pakistan. Following the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he rose from relative obscurity to become the powerful police chief of Kandahar, cultivating relationships with the CIA, the US military and Afghanistan’s political elite. Yet his growing influence came with allegations of torture, extrajudicial executions, involvement in the narcotics trade and brutal campaigns against his enemies.
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Producer | Host: Roh Yakobi
Assistant Producer/Researcher: Sa-aadat Yakobi
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Our conversation explores the complex tribal politics of southern Afghanistan, particularly the longstanding rivalries between Achakzai and Noorzai networks; Raziq’s relationship with the Karzai family; his growing independence from Kabul; and the uncomfortable compromises made by Washington in its pursuit of defeating the Taliban.
We also examine his assassination in October 2018, the competing theories surrounding his death, and the bloody reprisals that followed the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Above all, this is a conversation about the human consequences of war, the corrupting nature of power and the seemingly endless cycle of violence and revenge in Afghanistan.
Was General Raziq a hero, a ruthless warlord, or a tragic product of the very conflicts he helped perpetuate?
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