February 25, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 23, 1423

KABUL, Feb 24: The death of Afghanistan’s Mines and Industry Minister Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, killed in a plane crash near Karachi on Monday, brought to a tragic end one man’s dream of rebuilding his country after years in exile.

According to close relative Mohammad Daoud, Mohammadi had spent 27 years in the United States, but opted to return to his homeland when the collapse of the Taliban ended three decades of conflict.

The 62-year-old was a native of Afghanistan’s southeastern Paktia province.

Mr Mohammadi’s deputy, Engineer Nasar Mohammad Mangal, described his colleague’s death as “sad news” that would be a blow to Afghanistan’s fledgling government.

His comments were echoed by Shahabuddin Saqib, acting Afghan consul general in Karachi, who identified the minister’s body at a navy hospital in the city.

From Kuala Lumpur, where he was attending a summit of the 116-member Non-Aligned Movement, Afghan Presiden Hamid Karzai expressed “deep shock and sorrow” at the loss of Mohammadi.

It was a “tragic incident and a major loss for Afghanistan”, Karzai said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, also in Malaysia, said the government had lost “good and competent colleagues and brave human beings.”

According to Daoud, Mohammadi leaves behind a wife, three daughters and a son, all attending universities in the United States.

“At the end of the fighting in 2001, he decided to come back to Afghanistan to help his country after being inspired by the Bonn Agreement,” Daoud said, referring to a power-sharing deal struck by the country’s main factions.

A minister of water and power in Afghanistan’s government prior to the 1979 Soviet invasion of the country, Mohammadi swiftly joined the post-Taliban interim administration at the end of 2001 and was appointed to his current position.

He held onto his office at a Loya Jirga Afghan grand assembly in June last year, which also saw the re-installation of Hamid Karzai as president.

Mohammadi had arrived in Pakistan last week for trilateral summit with Turkmen and Pakistani officials on a proposed trans-Afghan pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to South Asia.

The Afghan delegation had also been in discussions with Pakistani counterparts on assistance from Islamabad to their nation in oil, gas and mineral exploration.—AFP