Biography
Juma Khan Hamdard, an ethnic Pashtun of the Wardak tribe from Mazari Sharif, was born in 1954 in Balkh Province in northern Afghanistan. A popular leader of the Pashtun community of Balkh and Mazar-i-Sharif, Hamdard was a member of Hezbi Islami and fought against the Soviets under the leadership of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In 1994, he allied with Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, against the Talibans. In 1997, he defected to the Taliban's side and helped them defeat Dostum's forces in 1997/98 in an extremely bloody campaign.
Following the US-led coalition's invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, Hamdard resumed a weak alliance with Dostum's forces, but on the eve of the presidential election in October 2004, he pledged support to Karzai. He was then made governor of the northern province of Baghlan, and later Jowzjan, Dostum's power base in the ethnic Uzbek heartland. In May 2007 forces under his command shot at demonstrators asking his dismissal in the town of Sheberghan, killing 13 and injuring more than 30. On December 17, 2007 he was appointed governor of the eastern Paktia Province, replacing Rahmatullah Rahmat. Hamdard is also one of President Karzai's tribal affairs advisors.
According to the US embassy cables leaked by WikiLeaks in December 2010, American officials report, that Hamdard is suspected of corruption involving U.S. funds and actively undermining Afghan government counter-insurgency policy. He is thought to be at the head of a province-wide corruption scheme, soliciting bribes from contractors "at four stages of a project: when contractors bid on a project, at application for building permits, during construction, and at the ribbon-cutting ceremony". He is also suspected of being an active member of Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) in Balkh Province, funneling money he received from bribes and smuggling (drugs and jewels) to HIG operations in his home province of Balkh, and of having illicit contacts with insurgents in Parwan, Kunar, and Kabul provinces, as well as Pakistani intelligence (ISI) and Iranian operatives through his business in Dubai, where Gulbaddin Hekmatyr's son is believed to be his business partner.
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