Kabul's security chief sacked

By Paul Anderson
BBC correspondent in Kabul

Basir Salangi ordered the bulldozing of homes of the poor

The head of security in Afghanistan's capital Kabul has been sacked, according to state radio.

The announcement comes amid a housing scandal in which almost all of Afghanistan's ministers and hundreds more members of the ruling elite have become embroiled.

The security chief, Basir Salangi, had ordered the partial bulldozing of more than a dozen homes belonging to the poor in order to clear the way for the construction of luxurious compounds.

Mr Salangi is the first victim of a scandal that has portrayed government ministers as happy to receive expensive gifts of land before caring for the needs of Afghanistan's tens of thousands of homeless.

Legal procedures

The mud and brick homes Mr Salangi ordered bulldozed are now surrounded by dozens of fancy compounds for Kabul's new elite.

Some of the residents were beaten by hundreds of police who attended the bulldozing.

The UN said the bulldozing was a violation of human rights

The UN and a leading human rights group described the incident as a gross violation of the rights of poor people.

Government ministers immediately defended themselves, saying they had followed legal procedures and as the land belonged to the ministry of defence it was entitled to distribute it as it saw fit.

President Hamid Karzai has set up an independent commission to investigate the scandal.

Land prices have gone through the roof in Kabul, driven up by the huge international community here and by large numbers of refugees returning to the capital after decades away.

Mr Salangi, who is an ally of the defence minister, Mohammed Qasim Fahim, has been replaced by a fellow ethnic Tajik, General Baba Jan.

Observers say there will be no effect on Marshal Fahim's substantial power base, which is the first thing anyone looks for whenever there is talk of a shake-up in security or cabinet structures.