PARIS, Feb 16: Afghanistan’s former king Mohammed Zahir Shah is “extremely troubled” by the killing of Afghan aviation and tourism minister Abdul Rahman, his senior aide said on Saturday.

Abdul Wali, who is also Shah’s son-in-law, told AFP it was at this point difficult and premature to point the finger of blame at any particular person or group for the minister’s murder on Thursday.

“His Majesty has been troubled, he is extremely troubled and condemns it as a gruesome and self-interested action at this sensitive time for our country,” he said by telephone from Rome.

On Friday, Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai accused senior security officials of assassinating Rahman at Kabul’s airport the day before and said four people had been arrested.

But witnesses told AFP that Muslim pilgrims, angry that planes to take them to Mecca had not arrived, had entered Rahman’s plane where he had been waiting to take off for India.

Wali said Rahman’s lynching would not discourage Zahir Shah and his entourage from returning next month to Afghanistan after decades of exile in Italy to supervise a grand tribal gathering for choosing an 18-month interim administration. “Do you think that we are the kind of people to be dissuaded from a national goal by acts like this?” Wali asserted. “I would not stop serving the country till the last.”

Wali did not rule the possibility of settling old scores, saying: “Everything is possible. It can be a personal enmity, but every wise person should wait until there is more light to the issue, and a premature condemnation is not fair.”—AFP