Police say Afghan warlord’s close aide shot dead in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A police officer says a close aide and relative of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has been shot and killed in northwest Pakistan.

Shaukat Khan says Haji Mohammad Farid’s bullet-riddled body was found Tuesday outside a mosque on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar. He says Farid, who long served as a Hekmatyar’s personal secretary, is also the warlord’s in-law; his daughter is married to the Hekmatyar’s son.

No one has claimed responsibility, but Hekmatyar has serious rivalries with multiple Afghan militant factions. He recently signed a peace deal with Kabul, but previously he had been battling American and Afghan government forces since U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001.