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Afghan governor turned 3,000 men over to Taliban
Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, the former governor of Afghanistan's Helmand province, has revealed he turned thousands of his followers over to the Taliban after he was sacked from the job under pressure from British officials.
He was accused of being linked to the opium trade and lost his position in 2005 to pave the way for UK soldiers to be deployed to the region.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph at his Kabul home, Mr Akhundzada said that after losing office he encouraged up to 3,000 followers to take up Taliban offers of money.
"When I was no longer governor the government stopped paying for the people who supported me," he said. "I sent 3,000 of them off to the Taliban because I could not afford to support them but the Taliban was making payments.
"Lots of people, including my family members, went back to the Taliban because they had lost respect for the government. The British bore the brunt of this because the Taliban became the defenders of Helmand, where the local tradition doesn't allow foreigners to go into people's homes."