In this episode we look at the dramatic fall of Haji Abdul Zaher Qadir, once a powerful Afghan commander and politician, who is now facing drug trafficking charges in the United States, after being arrested at a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, in April 2025. Haji Zaher, as he’s best known, was a prominent police commander and parliamentarian and was accused, multiple times, throughout the Islamic Republic era, of connections to drug smuggling, running private militias and land-grabbing. In this episode of AANCAST, Rachel Reid reads her account of Zaher’s fall from grace, as well as diving into the history of sting operations by the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

Duration: 26 minutes

Shownotes: Losing His Immunity: Former Afghan MP Haji Zaher extradited to US on drug charges, was published in April 2025 and read by author Rachel Reid.

For more stories of political intrigue, check out some of AAN’s rich archive here, including this report by Ali Yawar Adili: The Politics of Survival in the Face of Exclusion (2): The Emirate’s accommodation and suppression of local Hazara commanders.

Photo: Haji Zaher with members of his local militia, which at the time was slated to be incorporated into the Territorial Army, from Haji Qadir Zaher via Facebook, 12 February 2016

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