Mullah Abdul Samad Khaksar (1960 – 14 January 2006),[1] also referred to as Mohammad Khaksar,[2] served as Minister or Deputy Minister of Interior for Afghanistan under the Taliban government.[3]
He was born around 1960 in Kandahar.[citation needed] He received a madrasa education and fought under Hezbi Islami commander Mawlawi Abdul Raziq Muhammad Hasan in Kandahar during the 1980s.[citation needed]
He was the Taliban Intelligence Minister from 1994 to 1996 and deputy Interior Minister from 1996 to 2001 during the Taliban rule.[4] Khaksar became unhappy with al-Qaeda's influence in Afghanistan.[2] He reportedly met Osama bin Laden in 1998 following US cruise missile strikes on Al-Qaeda bases and told him to leave Afghanistan.[4] He met with US officials in Peshawar in 1999, offering them help in dealing with bin Laden, but his offer was turned down.[4] He also became an informant for the Northern Alliance.[2]
He renounced the Taliban following the US-led invasion in 2001 and encouraged people to support the Northern Alliance.[4] Abdul Samad became a vocal critic of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. In September 2005 he unsuccessfully ran for Afghanistan's new parliament.[2][5]
Abdul Samad was shot and killed while carrying groceries home with two[1] of his five children in Kandahar on 14 January 2006, by two men riding a motorcycle.[2] The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing,[5] with spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf Ahmadi saying that he was a traitor[1] whom they had been hunting for a long time.[2]