A struggle for peace in Afghan province most deadly for foreign troops - Al Jazeera America
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan — The police in Gereshk knew the Taliban were digging tunnels, but they didn’t know where. The police chief, Hekmatullah Haqmal, heard clanking and whacking coming from underground near a checkpoint and ordered his men to dig a shaft. Haqmal was known in Helmand as a brave fighter and a great tactician. It turned out the Taliban had managed to dig tunnels all the way to the first checkpoint and several hundred meters beyond, toward the next police post, where they filled an underground cavity with explosives. He was killed, along with four other policemen and seven workers searching for the tunnels, according to Helmand police. Mohammad Abdali relates this story in the police headquarters in Lashkar Gah one afternoon several days after Haqmal’s funeral. Abdali, 25, is the counternarcotics chief of Helmand and was one of Haqmal’s closest friends. Baby-faced with stubble and a chin dimple, Abdali has spent more then half an hour on Facebook, arranging a photo slideshow in Haqmal’s honor. A photo shows him and Haqmal walking the battlefields of Helmand. A tall man in his early 30s with a wrestler’s chest, Haqmal was seen by many as a stout bulwark against the Taliban. Source: america.aljazeera.com
