Tooryalai Wesa, an Afghan-Canadian academic who returned to Afghanistan to serve as governor of the volatile Kandahar province, has survived an assassination attempt.

Wesa, who lived in Coquitlam, B.C., before he was appointed to the post in late 2008, was on his way to a mosque for prayers marking the Muslim holiday of Eid.
Zelmai Ayubi, a spokesman for Mr. Wesa, says a remote-controlled roadside bomb detonated as the governor’s three-car convoy passed through the center of Kandahar city.

Mr. Ayubi says Mr. Wesa’s vehicle was damaged in the attack but the governor was not hurt.

When Mr. Wesa took over last year at the age of 58, he was the third governor of the volatile province in less than a year and he acknowledged the dangers of the job.

Sources