Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Abdul Zahir (Taliban leader)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   redirect to Akhtar Mohammad Osmani.  MBisanz  talk 07:49, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Abdul Zahir (Taliban leader)

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Not a notable individual. The only other references I can find are for a different Abdul Zahir, and the one used in this page mentions him only as a footnote; as in the article, it goes on about how the US believe they have killed Z, and then the Taliban claimed they missed and killed Y. I have no idea if a Taliban "group leader" would stand up to WP:BIO on his own, but in the absence of sources that mention him as more than an afterthought I'm going to say "no". Ironholds (talk) 10:16, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Merge Redirect to Akhtar Mohammad Osmani. There are multiple news stories detailing this incident thus establishing a certain degree of notability. Anti  venin  10:41, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * For the incident, yes, not the individual. There isn't anything to merge; the incident is already covered in Osmani's article. Ironholds (talk) 10:48, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Though I'm still inclined towards a redirect to Osmani's article. Anti  venin  11:06, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * IMO a person as non-notable as this (absolutely no news sources to speak of) is unlikely to be a searched-for term, but you are welcome to your opinion. Ironholds (talk) 11:32, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Delete, I don't think this is worth merging into someone else's article. Zahir is only mentioned in those newspaper articles because the US was trying to kill someone else. I can't find any articles about his role as a Taliban commander or his life. Not notable per WP:ONEEVENT. Somno (talk) 10:47, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * WP:ONEEVENT doesn't apply because the subject is dead. --SmokeyJoe (talk) 11:36, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * ONEEVENT is part of BLP, but IMHO it relates to all biographies, particularly "The bare fact that someone has been in the news does not in itself imply that they should be the subject of an encyclopedia entry." Somno (talk) 11:48, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Why say WP:ONEEVENT when you can say WP:ONEVENT? Not meaning to be entirely facetious, but exploring an issue at WT:BLP.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 11:58, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you, I wasn't aware there was a similar shortcut to a section within WP:BIO. That is more relevant here. The issue is that someone notable for one event, like this, is only covered in the context of that event, with no real focus on the individual. This seems to be what has happened with Zahir. Somno (talk) 01:11, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
 * There's precedent for using ONE(E)VENT for dead people: it was a major reason (or the major reason) for deleting the mini-articles on the students who were killed in the Virginia Tech massacre. Nyttend (talk) 13:16, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep but probably merge and redirect somewhere. This person is definately worth including in wikipedia, but not necessarily as a whole article.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 11:33, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Redirect to Akhtar Mohammad Osmani. I agree with Ironholds that it is unlikely people will search for this, but just in case... There is nothing worth merging into that article though. A militant getting hit by a missile that was aimed at another militant would not make him very notable IMHO. Being a group leader doesn't help much either. What is a group leader anyway, something like a squad leader/platoon commander?  C h a m a l  talk 12:04, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep, I find "'Hekmatyar had more money than anyone, and he thought about the future,' said Haji Abdul Zahir, a mujhadeen fighter who is now in charge of Afghanistan's eastern border. 'He invested it in business, and he saved it'." in the Boston Globe in April 2002, that leads me to the 1999 story of his escape from prison aided by Hekmatyr as outlined by Worthington who says "Haji Abdul Zahir, a commander from a famous Afghan family, and his cellmate from Jalalabad, General Qassim – and on the night of March 2,1999, while the other guards slept, Hekmatullah Hekmati opened their cells and led them to a Land Cruiser parked outside,which had been adorned with the white flag of the Taliban." This leads me to assume that, like most Afghan commanders that we English-speaker Westerners may not have heard of, or recognise, he is notable and there are sources out there -- they just need to be collected. It's why we have stub templates. Sherurcij (speaker for the dead) 13:03, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Question - Could you provide that link, please? Also, is there proof that the mentions (in the one source provided in the article and the mention in the article you cite above) are both the same person?  Could it be two people with the same name?BWH76 (talk) 13:53, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Strong delete - barring any further information that clearly indicates that this individual (and unquestioningly this individual as opposed to another with a similar transliterated name) did something of note, there is no reason at all for this article. This article has 1 source that mentions the article subject in +/- 3 sentences. In those sentences, the subject's role is not clear.  We cannot (and do not) assume notability of an individual barring sources or any specific information.   BWH76 (talk) 23:32, 13 March 2009 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.