Afghan governor fired after comments

Afghanistan's government fired a provincial governor days after he said Afghans are distancing themselves from President Hamid Karzai and that a "vacuum of authority" is allowing the Taliban, al-Qaida and other groups to gain power.

Abdul Sattar Murad, the governor of Kapisa province, was fired because "he sowed discord" and provided U.S.-led coalition troops with wrong information about the people of the province, said a statement from the Ministry of Interior, which appoints the country's 34 governors.

The removal came only days after Murad gave an interview to Newsweek magazine in which he was highly critical of the central government.

"In remote parts of the country there is practically a vacuum of authority, a vacuum of power. Somebody will have to fill that vacuum. Either the criminals fill that vacuum or the Taliban and al-Qaida do," Murad said in the interview, published on the magazine's Web site Thursday.

"All the political parties are now drifting away from the national leadership. All over the country, the people are distancing themselves from the government," he was quoted as saying. "Many of the elders, those who have influence, feel they have been left out and are not in the same convoy with the government."

The government said the decision to fire Murad was made before the interview was published. Murad denied that allegation and believes his comments led to his removal.

"If they removed me because I have given a statement to Newsweek I welcome that," Murad said at his office in Kabul. "After all, it is the right of the government to remove or to appoint (people)."

"However, accusing me of wrong things ... which I have never done, this is dirty politics," he said. "You want to remove somebody, remove him ... but don't play dirty politics."