The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sunday, July 7, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

Afghan Vice-President shot

Afghan Vice-President Haji Abdul Qadir attends UN talks on Afghanistan in Koenigswinter, near Bonn, in this November 27, 2001 file photo.

Kabul, July 6
Haji Abdul Qadir, one of Afghanistan’s three vice presidents, was assassinated in front of his office in the centre of Kabul today, police and government officials said.

Qadir, a Pashtun from the Northern Alliance, who was also Public Works Minister and former Governor of Jalalabad, was shot by two gunmen as he drove out of his office compound, Kabul police chief Basir Salangi told reporters.

His four-wheel-drive vehicle crashed into a wall as bullets riddled the side and windscreen, killing Qadir and his driver and wounding two occupants.

A veteran warlord from eastern Afghanistan, Qadir had played a leading role in the downfall of the Taliban last year. There was some speculation that the assassination could have been carried out by remnants of the Taliban, who viewed Qadir as a betrayer of their Pashtun ethnic group.

Suspicion also fell on the ministry’s security guards, who had been appointed by Qadir’s predecessor at the Public Works Ministry, Abdul Khaliq Fazal.

German soldiers from the ISAF surround the car of Afghan Vice-President Haji Abdul Qadir in Kabul on Saturday. — Reuters photos

“Ten guards have been arrested, but the motive for the killing is not immediately clear,’’ Salangi told reporters.

Witnesses said the gunmen were posing as guards in front of 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, the witnesses said.

Karzai went to the 400-bed Military Hospital where Qadir’s body was taken. He also called an emergency meeting of his Cabinet. The Interior Ministry moved quickly to set up checkpoints throughout the capital, searching vehicles for the killers who fled in a white vehicle.

Qadir had fought Soviet forces in Afghanistan and was one of the most influential figures in war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Qadir had participated in the December intra-Afghan Bonn Conference, which had led to the installation of an interim government in Kabul under Hamid Karzai.

But Qadir had stormed out of the conference unhappy over inadequate Pashtun representation and had resumed his hold on power in eastern Nangahar province after the collapse of the Taliban regime in November.

He was not part of the interim administration, but Karzai had won him over when he nominated Qadir during last month’s Loya Jirga as one of the Vice-Presidents and Minister for Public Works in the transitional set-up.

NEW DELHI: India described as “very unfortunate development” the slaying of Afghan Vice-President Haji Abdul Qadir in Kabul.

“It is a very unfortunate development,” an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said when New Delhi’s reaction was sought on the assassination.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan expressed grief over the assassination of Afghan Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir and said it hoped the attackers would be brought to justice. Agencies