topic by
TheAZCowBoy
7/6/2002 (14:48) |
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New turmoil for Afghanistan as vice president Haji Qadir assassinated
Afghanistan's fragile security was shattered when two gunmen assassinated powerful Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir close to his offices in the capital Kabul, officials said.
The government has set up a high-ranking ministerial commission to investigate the killing which was condemned by foreign governments, including US President George W. Bush.
The killing once again throws a major question mark over new President Hamid Karzai's attempts to bring stability to Afghanistan at a time when security in Kabul had appeared to have improved.
Qadir, who was also minister for public works in Karzai's transitional government, was killed by a hail of bullets as he was being driven out of his ministerial offices shortly before 01:00 pm (0830 GMT).
Witnesses said that he was killed immediately along with two other people, one of whom was thought to have been his driver.
One official who saw Qadir's body in the vehicle said that 'he had bullet holes in his head and chest.'
'The motive behind the assassination is not yet clear and we are investigating the case,' Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak told reporters.
Wardak will head up the commission into the slaying along with Qadir's fellow Vice President Karim Khalili, a government statement announced late Saturday.
Qadir, who was a fierce opponent of the former Taliban regime, was 'martyred in a terrorist attack', the statement added.
'The Islamic government of Afghanistan, while expressing its great sadness, also expressed their condolences to the family members of this mujahed (holy warrior) and national personality of Afghanistan.'
Kabul police chief Bashir Salangi said 10 guards at the ministry had been arrested after the unidentified assassins escaped after spraying Qadir's car with bullets.
Salangi, who said that two gunmen had carried out the killing, said that 'one of the guards came out and told one of the assassins that the minister was coming.'
Qadir, who was until recently governor of the main eastern province of Nangarhar, was one of the most powerful regional leaders in Afghanistan.
His appointment as one of five vice presidents by Karzai last month was seen as a move to bring an end to the dominance of warlords by drawing them away from their traditional power bases.
Despite the ouster of the Taliban regime last November, peace in Afghanistan remains elusive.
Former aviation minister Abdul Rachman was also assassinated in February while bombers tried to kill Defence Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim earlier this year in Jalalabad.
US-led coalition forces are still fighting the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda network in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
Bush offered the US government's help to the Afghan government in the hunt for Qadir's killers as he paid tribute to the vice president on Saturday. The United States is understood to have blocked moves for Qadir to be appointed interior minister last month over his alleged reputation as a drugs baron.
Asked whether he thought terrorists were behind Qadir's slaying, Bush replied: 'It could be that, it could be drug lords, it could be longtime rivals. Who knows? All we know is a good man is dead and we mourn his loss.'
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf also sent a message of condolence to Karzai.
'We are shocked and grieved at the assassination,' Musharraf said.
'The government of Pakistan condemns this act of terrorism. Please accept and convey to the bereaved family our deep condolences.'
A spokesman for former Afghan king Mohammed Zahir Shah mourned 'the loss of a brave son of the nation'.
'Although we do not hope so, this is a big blow to the process of stability in the country,' spokesman Hamid Sidiq added.
Qadir was the brother of former mujahedin commander Abdul Haq who was himself assassinated by the Taliban last October as he tried to stir up a rebellion against the fundamentalist Islamic militia.
Qadir, an ethnic Pashtun, was a firm supporter of Karzai and was appointed vice president at last month's Loya Jirga grand assembly.
He was also one of the wealthiest men in Afghanistan, with suspicions that his fortune was largely funded through the drugs trade.
Qadir criticised Karzai's campaign to eradicate all opium-producing poppy production which is one of the mainstays of the economy in eastern Afghanistan.
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