Officials: Afghan senator, driver killed in police shooting

Dec 23, 2009, 8:40 GMT

Kunduz, Afghanistan - An Afghan senator and his driver were killed Wednesday when police opened fire on their vehicle in northern Afghanistan, officials said.

Mohammad Younus, also known as Shireen Agha, a senator from Baghlan province, was travelling home when the incident took place in the Jarkeskan area of the province, said Baghlan Governor Mohammad Akbar Barekzai said.

He said a third person accompanying the senator was injured in the shooting.

'When the senator's vehicle approached the police checkpoint, it did not stop despite several warnings by our forces,' said Kabir Andarabi, the provincial police chief.

Police had intelligence that the Taliban would transport fighters injured in a clash with Afghan forces the previous day to Puli Khomri city, the provincial capital, Andarabi added.

The Interior Ministry confirmed the incident in a statement and said it had dispatched a high-level delegate to the province to investigate the incident.

Nearly a dozen parliamentarians have been killed in assassinations and bombings in the past four years since the Afghan parliament was formed after decades of war.

Security has deteriorated in the previously peaceful northern provinces of Baghlan and Kunduz in the past three years. Taliban militants are most active in southern and eastern Afghanistan.