KABUL, July 6: Unidentified gunmen assassinated one of Afghanistan’s three vice-presidents in broad daylight in Kabul on Saturday, in a fresh blow to efforts by President Hamid Karzai to impose his authority on the volatile country.
Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak told reporters Haji Abdul Qadir, a powerful warlord and a Pakhtoon like Karzai, had been shot dead in his car in an ambush in the centre of the Afghan capital.
Kabul police chief Basir Salangi said two gunmen fired some 36 rounds as the car drove into Qadir’s office compound. The bullets smashed the windscreen and riddled the side of the vehicle with holes. Witnesses said the driver was also killed.
Qadir, public works minister, comes from Afghanistan’s biggest ethnic group but was also a member of the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance which swept into Kabul late last year to oust their longtime foes, the Taliban, with U.S. help.
Salangi said 10 guards, who had been appointed by Qadir’s predecessor at the public works ministry, Abdul Khaliq Fazal, had been arrested. One Afghan expert suggested it could have been a Taliban-organised hit because of his links with the Alliance.
Officers from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), in Kabul to help keep the peace, said they were investigating.
In June, a Loya Jirga, or Grand Assembly, of Afghan leaders approved a new cabinet to lead the country with Karzai for the next 18 months in the hope of bringing peace and stability after 23 years of war.
NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING: A high-ranking team of ministers will investigate the assassination of Afghan Vice-President Haji Abdul Qadir as the country prepares for a national day of mourning, a government statement said Saturday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s cabinet went into emergency session on Saturday afternoon around two hours after Qadir was gunned down.
The government statement said that Qadir, who was a fierce opponent of the former Taliban regime, was “martyred in a terrorist attack.”
“The Islamic government of Afghanistan, while expressing its great sadness, also expressed their condolences to the family members of this mujahed and national personality of Afghanistan.”
The statement added that Qadir’s fellow Vice-President Karim Khalili and Interior Minister Taj Mohammad Wardak would head a special governmental commission into the killing and would make regular reports on their progress.
Prayers would be said in Kabul’s main Eidgah mosque on Sunday morning before Qadir’s body is taken to his home city of Jalalabad for burial at the family graveyard.
Qadir’s brother Abdul Haq was assassinated by the Taliban last October as he tried to stir up a revolt at the start of the US bombing campaign.
“On Tuesday a memorial service will be held in Kabul and provinces,” the statement added.
“On the occasion of the martyrdom of this great mujahed Mr Abdul Qadir on Tuesday there will be a general day of mourning.”—Reuters/AFP
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.