AFGHANISTAN: Afghans mourned vice-president Haji Abdul Qadir at a funeral service yesterday as investigations began into an assassination which threatens the country's fragile stability.
Qadir, one of three newly-appointed vice-presidents and also minister for public works, was shot dead while being driven out of his ministry compound on Saturday. He was the second cabinet member to be murdered in Afghanistan this year.
A powerful regional warlord who agreed to join the central government, his death represents a serious setback to President Hamid Karzai's efforts to build an alliance to lead the country out of 23 years of war and towards elections in 18 months' time.
"He was very much part of Karzai's strategy to try to bring warlords into the centre and give up their fiefdoms," said Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid. "Clearly, after this, warlords are going to be very reluctant to come into the centre, simply because they are more vulnerable in Kabul."
Although officials have not suggested any motive for Qadir's murder or named any suspects, police have arrested all 10 security guards at the ministry for failing to prevent the attack or apprehend the gunmen.
The scenes which unfolded during Qadir's funeral service in Kabul and burial in his eastern stronghold of Jalalabad will be a reminder to Afghanistan's fledgling government that the people are wearying of the endless cycle of violence.
Thousands of mourners thronged the cortège as it made its way to the capital's main mosque, the coffin draped in velvet and the red, black and green Afghan flag.
"Karzai has to do whatever is necessary to stop the violence," said Mr Navid Bakhsh, a 43-year-old civil servant working in Kabul. "Words on TV and radio don't help, there must be action."
Suspicion of involvement in the murder has fallen on everyone from the remnants of the Taliban to drug lords involved in the opium trade in eastern Afghanistan or simply people with personal or business scores to settle.
Qadir was one of the few Pashtuns in the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance which swept the Taliban from power last year, backed by US air power. As such, he made enemies among Pashtuns, who accused him of selling out their cause for personal gain.
But his assassins could just as easily have been Tajiks determined to prevent the emergence of any strong Pashtun leaders, analysts said.
Qadir's younger brother, Mujahideen commander Abdul Haq, was executed by the Taliban shortly after the US launched its air strikes on Afghanistan.
In February, Dr Abdul Rehman, the country's tourism minister, was killed at Kabul Airport under circumstances which have never become clear.
President George W. Bush condemned Qadir's assassination and said that his death strengthened America's resolve to bring stability to the war-torn country.
"He was a bridge between the Northern Alliance and the Pashtuns, the most effective bridge, and he's gone," said Ahmed Rashid. "After this it will be very difficult for the Northern Alliance to find Pashtuns to be by their side." - Reuters
The victims of a US air raid which killed 48 guests and wounded 118 at a wedding party in central Afghanistan were paid a total of $18,500 in compensation, an official said yesterday. The district commissioner, Mr Abdur Rahim, said that he had paid out eight million afghanis ($200) to relatives on behalf of each individual killed and three million afghanis ($75) for each wounded person.