Afghan Police Chief Detained Over Killing Of 16 Pakistanis

(RFE/RL) PRAGUE, March 31, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Afghan authorities have detained a border police chief in the southern province of Kandahar who is accused of ordering the killing of 16 Pakistanis near the Afghan border town of Spin Boldak.

Kandahar's governor, Assadullah Khalid, says Commander Abdul Razzak has been temporarily replaced at his post while an investigation into the killings proceeds.

Razzak claims the Pakistanis were Taliban fighters and had attacked border police after crossing illegally into Afghanistan from Pakistan.

But Saqib Aziz, a Pakistani official in the border town of Chaman, says the Pakistanis were from the Nurzai tribe and were killed because of a blood feud with Razzak's clan.

Pakistan says the victims were trying to travel to a festival in northern Afghanistan marking the spring festival Norouz.