Gul Agha Sherzai
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Gul Agha Shirzai is the governor of Kandahar Province in Afghanistan. His capture (with assistance from American special forces and airstrikes) of Kandahar city in late 2001 marked the first time territory in southern Afghanistan had been captured from the Taliban. In August 2003 President Hamid Karzai decreed that officials could no longer hold both military and civil posts, and replaced Gul Agha with Yusuf Pashtun as governor of Kandahar, but after much lobbying, Gul Agha was able to retain his governorship
Born Shafeeq to a poor ethnic Pastun restaurant owner, he took the name Gul Agha ("flower") when he joined his father in the Mujahideen against the Soviet invasion. After his father was murdered, he added the name Shirzai ("son of lion"). After the collapse of the PDPA government in 1991, Gul Agha served a governor of Kandahar from 1992 until 1994. His rule was reputed to be exceptionally bloody and vicious, even by Afghan warlord standards.