Thousands mourn murdered Afghan vice-president

Wrapped in an Afghan flag, the body of slain Afghan vice president Abdul Qadir was carried today on the shoulders of his family members into the Eid Gah mosque in the capital Kabul where funeral prayers were said.

Qadir was shot dead yesterday outside his government office in Kabul in a daring daylight attack by two men with Kalashnikov rifles. His son-in-law, who was driving the vehicle, was also killed. The gunmen escaped.

Thousands of men streamed into the grand Eid Gah mosque that stretches the length of a city block in the heart of Kabul’s old city.

Three helicopters kicked up clouds of dust as they landed in a nearby sports stadium bringing mourners from Qadir’s eastern Nangarhar province to Kabul to offer prayers.

Qadir was governor of Nangarhar province as well as public works minister and vice president.

Some of the mourners had driven five hours on a stony road from the Nangarhar provincial capital of Jalalabad to Kabul to attend the funeral prayers.

‘‘We are so sad. This is a big loss and it is a big loss for all of Afghanistan. Whoever did this must pay,’’ said Haji Saki, a former guerrilla fighter with Qadir who had driven the 125 kilometres (75 miles) from Jalalabad to Kabul earlier today.

One hundred international peacekeepers joined hundreds of Afghan soldiers and police officers to provide a security cordon around the sprawling mosque.

Rocket rutted roads leading to the mosque were closed, cars on other main roads were being

searched by police officers with rocket launchers and Kalashnikov rifles slung over their shoulders.

‘‘We believe it was an individual attack, designed to destabilise the transitional government,’’ said Turkish Army Col Samet Oz, spokesman for the peacekeepers called the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Turkey took over command of the estimated 5,000 soldiers last month.

Qadir’s body will be taken by ISAF helicopter to Jalalabad later Wednesday where it will be buried.

Several Cabinet ministers are to attend, but the government has refused to identify them citing security concerns.

It isn’t known whether Afghan President Hamid Karzai will be among the mourners in Jalalabad. Tuesday has been declared a day of mourning.

A government statement blamed the assassination on ‘‘terrorists’’ and said a special commission

had been formed to track down the killers.

The attack took place about 12.40pm as Qadir was leaving by car from the heavily guarded Ministry of Public Works, which he also headed.

All 10 uniformed security guards who were on duty at the ministry were arrested because they failed to react properly, according to Kabul police chief Din Mohammed Jurat.

No group claimed responsibility. Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad called the killing a ‘‘terrorist action’’ carried out by ‘‘enemies of the state who are against peace in the country.’’

Apart from Karzai himself, Qadir was the most prominent ethnic Pashtun in the government. He was appointed as one of three vice presidents during last month’s Afghan grand council, or loya jirga, to bring ethnic balance into a government which had been dominated by ethnic Tajiks.

In Jalalabad, residents said the killing could have stemmed from manifold personal, political and economic rivalries in the province.

Qadir was a leading rebel commander during the war against the Soviets in the 1980s. Later, he became one of the few prominent Pashtuns to join the Tajik and Uzbek-dominated northern alliance, which allied with the US during last year’s war against the Taliban.

His brother, Abdul Haq, was a legendary anti-Soviet commander who was captured by the Taliban

and killed in October when he slipped into Afghanistan to organise resistance among the Pashtuns to the hard-line Islamic militia.

Qadir’s death threatens to stir unrest in the strategic eastern area as the Karzai government struggles to extend its authority beyond the capital.

There were no immediate candidates for governor, but the selection is expected to be a thorny one with many rivals likely to demand it.

US President George W Bush said his administration stands ready to assist in the Afghan investigation if Karzai asks for help.

‘‘We are more resolved than ever to bring stability to the country so that the Afghan people can

have peace and hope,’’ Bush said.

Qadir’s personal history was colourful and often controversial. During the war against the Soviets, he belonged to the conservative Hezb-e-Islami party, whose leader, Yunus Khalis, allowed al Qaida fighters to live on his farm during the Taliban regime.

As governor of Nangarhar in 1996, before the Taliban took power, Qadir welcomed Osama bin Laden when he arrived in Jalalabad from Sudan at the invitation of Qadir’s lieutenant, Engineer Mahmood.

During his four years as governor before the Taliban, Qadir was often criticised by the UN drug control programme for failing to curb poppy production in Nangarhar.

Qadir was the second Cabinet minister assassinated since the Taliban collapsed last year. On February 14, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Abdul Rahman was killed at Kabul airport under mysterious circumstances.

Rahman was initially reported killed by a mob of Muslim pilgrims angered that they had been unable to travel to Mecca.

Later, Karzai blamed Rahman’s killing on a conspiracy involving members of his own police and intelligence services and said it sprang from a personal vendetta.

However, no-one has been charged with the death and some of those publicly named remain in power.