{{A former Afghan senator and district governor has defected to the Taliban in the northern province of Sar-e-Pol, officials have told media.}}<\/p>\n
Qazi Abdul Hai served as a senator between 2004 and 2008 and was later made a district governor in Sar-e-Pol.<\/p>\n
Correspondents say he is thought to be the highest-ranking civilian official to have joined the Taliban.<\/p>\n
The move comes as foreign combat forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014 and ahead of elections next year.<\/p>\n
Mr Hai is believed to have defected to the Taliban along with two of his bodyguards on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Officials say it is unclear why he decided to join the Taliban and played down the impact of his decision and dismissed his influence.<\/p>\n
“His defection does not have any impact on his people in the district, because he was not a very influential person,” Abdul Ghafore Dastyaar, deputy governor of Sar-e-Pol, told media.<\/p>\n
He added that Mr Hai had left Afghanistan and was believed to be over the border in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
The Taliban welcomed the move, describing it as an achievement that supports their cause and said that it was partly due to their efforts in the area.<\/p>\n
Mr Hai also appears in a video posted on the Taliban website in which he describes himself as a former mujahideen fighter and says that in his four years in Kabul he saw what he describes as “the corrupt face of the government”.<\/p>\n
“In my four years’ time during which I represented my people in the Senate I saw that a lot of cruelty and corruption carried out by the government people towards the Afghan population . Our villages were bombarded and our houses were searched by the invaders,” he says on the video.<\/p>\n
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