Between 12 and 1 today, one of Afghanistan's three vice presidents was shot and killed, outside the government ministry where he worked. His driver was also killed. A poignant photo showed the british side driver seat, dishevelled and bloodstained.

 

Security guards were arrested after the killing, apparently somehow negligent in their duties and a day of mourning was going to be declared for tomorrow.

 

The family tree of Abdul Qadir is an interesting one. His brother was Abdul Haq, murdered by the taliban last year. His son was imprisoned by the Taliban.

 

He was a Pashtun as is Harmid Kharzai and apparently the only other major Pashtun in the government or at least one of few other Pashtuns. As the governor of Nangahar province, the province containing Jalalabad, he came under fire for not policing poppy farming enough and apparently welcomed osama bin laden to jalalabad in 1996, before the taliban arrived.

 

Yet today, his death is greatly mourned, whether the work of terrorists or of those who assaulted tora bora along with united states recently or as part of some sort of bad drug issue, as president Bush suggested as one possibility.

 

As an additional fascinating fact, related to the arrest of the security guards - Qadir refused to have bodyguards and had none today. Who can know what the result might have been otherwise? One other member of the Kharzai government has so far been assasinated and another attempt was made a while back.

 

 

 

sources:

 

miami.com ap wire, - Amir Shah

news24.com sapa-AFP, South Africa

The Hindu, reuters

sunspot.net, ap - Amir Shah, Maryland

"Afghan vice president shot dead", CNN