Afghan politician's murder touches off political discord

Camelia Entekhabi-Fard 7/10/02

In a private lunch in a Kabul palace, family members of Afghan politician/warrior Haji Qadir met with the country's transitional president, Hamid Karzai, to determine who would succeed Qadir as vice president. Qadir's brothers and son joined Karzai and Jalalabad strongman Hazrat Ali to chart a course for the government. Assassins killed Qadir in his car on July 6. Early reports indicate that Karzai offered the post to Qadir's older brother, Haji Din Mohammed. Karzai also reportedly offered ambassadorial jobs to Qadir's other brother, Nasarullah Baryalai, 43, and to his son. But according to a participant who asked for anonymity, Din Mohammed and his relatives turned down the offers. Qadir's assassination instantly threw Karzai's government into turbulence; Qadir's replacement will probably take longer to emerge.

According to a witness, Din Mohammed told the president that he did not want a political appointment in Kabul. Similarly, Baryalai told EurasiaNet that he and his nephew rejected diplomatic posts because they felt they were more of use inside Afghanistan. "It is out of the question that we leave the country at a moment like this," said a still-disconsolate Baryalai. This sentiment is practical as well as patriotic: Qadir, an ethnic Pashtun like Karzai, had many friends among the ethnically Tajik former Northern Alliance leaders who dominate the current cabinet and many enemies in the rural provinces. To hear Baryalai, peoples' passions about Qadir are continuing to ripple through Afghan politics in unpredictable ways.

"At first our people placed all their hope on the shoulders of the martyr Abdul Haq," he said, referring to another brother who died at the Taliban's hands in October 2001. "Then, after his murder, they were looking up to my brother. Now with this killing, our people are very upset, very agitated." The relatively thin representation of ethnic Pashtuns in the cabinet has worried observers since the transitional government convened in December 2001. In April, assailants tried to kill Defense Minister Mohammed Qasim Fahim, a Tajik, when he visited Jalalabad.

Some have speculated that poppy growers who worried about Qadir's ability to enforce a government opium ban had him killed; others suspect that a rival he had humiliated ordered the slaying. Asked who he thought may be behind the murder, Baryalai invoked an organized force strategically sympathetic to the Taliban. "Right now, our enemies want instability and chaos," he said. "The same hands that felled Haq and my brother want one thing: that this country never sees the end of war and fratricide," he said. "I am sure they don't have any personal problems or animus with them, it is just that these two men stood in their way."

Cracks in this supposed unity became evident in an elaborate tribute to Qadir on July 9. Fahim, who is charged with assembling a national army, accompanied Karzai to Jalalabad. In an emotional speech, Fahim condemned the terrorists that had killed Qadir and his driver, then effusively praised Qadir and his family for the sacrifices they had made for Afghanistan. "As Muslims we believe there is a world outside this existence," he said. "When God Almighty decides to take us, he does. No one could say why He does so." Fahim may have intended this last comment as consolation to the bereaved family but apparently they understood it differently.

After Fahim, Haji Din Mohammed took the microphone. At first he too waxed eloquent on questions of life, destiny and predestination but, wiping tears from his eyes, he asked some direct question about Kabul's investigation. "We ask when other Ministers are protected by numerous cars and security and guns, Haji Qadir had to be deprived of those same things. So respectfully, we are not sure if this was all the hand of destiny." After the ceremony, Baryalai complained to EurasiaNet that television cameras cut off after Fahim's speech, capturing none of Haji Din Mohammed's. At least one Jalalabad official publicly accused Karzai of failing to adequately protect Qadir.

Whatever Qadir's death does to roil Afghan politics, it may also tarnish dealings between the ravaged state and Pakistan, its neighbor to the south. One official who prefers to remain anonymous said that about 20 days ago Haji Qadir had a high-level meeting with the Indian ambassador in Kabul. They reportedly discussed seeking closer cooperation in various fields with India and setting up Indian consulates in Jalalabad and elsewhere. It was common knowledge, the source said, that Qadir had been expelled from Pakistan for his opposition to the Taliban and was not on good terms with Pakistani hard-liners. (Until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Pakistan maintained close official ties to the Taliban.) He may have been discussing programs to protect Jalalabad tribespeople who had immigrated from Pakistan years ago.

Meanwhile, Qadir's relatives exert some power in promoting or squelching harmony within Afghanistan's government. "Nangahar [Qadir's home province] has always [played] the most important role of the destiny of Afghanistan. Stability in Afghanistan has direct connection to the peace in Nangahar," said Baryalai. He added: "We are sad because Marshal Fahim didn't talk clearly and transparently about any of the details on the crime. We want to know who killed our brother as soon as possible."

Editor's Note: Camelia Entekhabi-Fard is a journalist who specializes in Afghan and Iranian affairs. She is currently in Afghanistan reporting for EurasiaNet.

Posted July 10, 2002 © Eurasianet