Slain Afghan official, a poet, embodied hope of youth --- To those who knew him, Abdul Qadim Patyal, the 32-year-old deputy governor of Kandahar province, was a rarity among Afghan officials: a politician with the soul of a poet. -- Patyal, a well-known writer, was gunned down Sunday while sitting in a Kandahar University classroom, attending a night course on Pashto literature. He was in his final semester, months from earning an education degree. -- The Taliban claimed responsibility for the slaying, which has shaken the Afghan political establishment as well as Patyal’s admirers outside the government. He was widely seen as a model for a young generation of Afghans who seek a greater voice in a country that has been at war for nearly all of their lives. -- “He was so important for this country and its future,” said Javid Faisal, a former Kandahar provincial spokesman who worked closely with Patyal for five years. -- As deputy governor — and before that, as head of Kandahar’s information and culture department — Patyal sought to help youth from poor, insecure parts of the southern province gain access to education. Kandahar, long a center of the Taliban insurgency, has been one of the provinces hardest hit by the 13-year conflict that started with the U.S.-led military invasion in 2001. - Latimes, http://touch.latimes.com/#section/613/article/p2p-81871488/