Haji Abdul Qadir, one of Afghan-istan's three vice presidents, was assassinated outside his office in the center of Kabul yesterday, police and government officials said.
Qadir, a Pashtun from the Northern Alliance who was also public works minister and a former governor of Jalalabad, was shot by two gunmen as he drove out of his office compound, Kabul police chief Basir Salangi told reporters.
PHOTO: REUTERS
His four-wheel-drive vehicle crashed into a wall as bullets riddled the side and windscreen, killing both Qadir and his driver, and wounding two passengers.
Blood was spattered over the dashboard, seats and a set of prayer beads lying on the cushion in between the front seats.
A veteran warlord from eastern Afghanistan, Qadir played a leading role in the downfall of the Taliban last year.
His brother, mujahidin commander Abdul Haq, was himself executed by the Taliban shortly after the US launched air strikes on Afghanistan last year.
There was some speculation the assassination could have been carried out by remnants of the Taliban, who viewed Qadir as a betrayer of their Pashtun ethnic group.
However, suspicion also fell on ministry's security guards, who had been appointed by Qadir's predecessor at the public works ministry, Abdul Khaliq Fazal.
"Ten guards were arrested, but the motive for the killing isn't immediately clear," Salangi said.
General Deen Mohammad Jurat, head of security for the Interior Ministry, told reporters those responsible for the killing were "enemies of the government and members of al-Qaeda and anti-government groups."
"I am 100 percent sure that these people [guards] were involved because they were merely 2m or 3m away from the site of the killing and didn't do anything to try to stop it," he said.
Witnesses said the gunmen were posing as guards outside the compound. As Qadir was preparing to leave, another guard came outside and warned the gunmen, they said.
The two men later escaped by taxi and none of the ministry's guards did anything to stop them, witnesses said.
The assassination illustrates the problems facing President Hamid Karzai just weeks after a Loya Jirga, or grand assembly, of Afghan leaders approved a new Cabinet to lead the country out of 23 years of war and prepare for elections in 18 months time.
In February, Tourism Minister Abdul Rehman was killed at the airport under circumstances which have never been made clear.
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