TIME: A Killing in
Kabul
Saturday, July 06, 2002
By MICHAEL WARE
At a little after noon on Saturday in Kabul Yusuf
Khan called his uncle, one of Afghanistan's four
deputy presidents, to ask when he would be home for
lunch. "I'll be in the car soon," Abdul Haji Qadir
told his young relative. "I'm coming in maybe 15 or
20 minutes." True to his word Qadir drove out of
Kabul's Ministry of Public Works — his new cabinet
portfolio — at 12:40 p.m. But he never made it on to
the street. Two assassins with AK-47 assault rifles
were waiting in the bushes shrouding the driveway. As
Qadir's dark blue Land Cruiser nosed out of the white
grill gates they leapt up and opened fire. Two
minutes later the gunmen were gone, Qadir lay dying
and the country was once again in turmoil.
Much was riding on Qadir, a former mujahedin hero of
the anti-Soviet resistance. As the leading
representative of the country's disenfranchised
Pashtun majority, Qadir was the centerpiece of
President Hamid Karzai's maneuvers to integrate
Pashtuns who have been effectively excluded from
power by the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance that
defeated the Taliban. Now that plan is threatened.
"This has been caused by enemies of peace and
stability," says Karzai's foreign affairs spokesman
Omar Samad.
A warrior for more than two decades and the victor of
an intense power struggle in his home province of
Nangarhar, Qadir faced a myriad of political, local
and business enemies. The best clues lie with the
shooters seen lurking for 30 minutes prior to the
attack outside the ministry compound. Young cigarette
seller Habib Jan noticed them from his stall across
the road. "As Haji Qadir was about to pass the gates
these two guys in shawar kameez [the traditional
clothing typical of Qadir's province] with white caps
on their heads stood up and I saw Kalashnikovs behind
their backs," he says.
Firing from about 20 feet away, the assassins gave
Qadir no chance for escape. His driver, Jaffa,
floored the accelerator as high-velocity bullets
sliced through the windscreen and panels of the 4x4,
hitting Qadir in the head. Turning wildly to the
right, the vehicle collided with metal poles lining
the driveway, tearing them from the ground. The
gunmen continued firing, pouring rounds through the
rear window as the car careered along the footpath
and crashed into a concrete wall at full speed.
Jaffa's lifeless body was later pulled from the
wreckage. Blood and brain matter covered the 4x4's
dashboard. White tufts of padding poked through holes
in the Qadir's passenger seat headrest. Black prayer
beads were coiled on a console soaking in blood.
Because crime scence security was non-existent — a
policeman sat in the driver's seat and used the
bloody steering wheel to drive the limping vehicle
away — few answers are likely to be found in the
destroyed interior. More, however, may be gleaned
elsewhere. One question is what happened to the
guards on the gate, eight to ten of whom were taken
into police custody as witnesses. Doctor Zia, the
chief of police district nine, which covers the
ministry compound, said that the guards had left
their post for a lunch break at the time of the
attack. They belonged to Qadir's predecessor as
Public Works Minister and had not been
replaced.