Karzai buries brother, appoints heir
Source: Agencies |
July 14, 2011, Thursday
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AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai buried his assassinated brother yesterday, then swiftly gave another brother a key role opened by the killing, in what could be a bid to stave off political infighting in the volatile south.
President Karzai wept and kissed the face of his dead brother Ahmad Wali Karzai, unofficially the most powerful man in southern province Kandahar, at a burial in their ancestral village attended by thousands of mourners.
Only hours after the body was lowered into the ground, the president appointed another brother, Shah Wali Karzai, as de facto leader of the Popalzai tribe to which the Karzai family belongs.
Two explosions were heard in Kandahar city by a Reuters witness soon after the burial, but officials said the ceremony passed without security problems. Foreign forces said they had carried out controlled detonations at a nearby airfield.
In another sign of the volatility of southern Afghanistan, the governor of neighboring Helmand province escaped a bomb attack on his motorcade en route to the burial.
Two security officials were injured in the attack in Kandahar's Maiwand district but the governor was unhurt and attended the burial, his spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said.
Ahmad Wali Karzai, a younger half brother of the president, whose influence belied his modest title as head of the Kandahar provincial council, was killed by a trusted family security guard at his home on Tuesday. President Karzai flew to Kandahar hours after his brother was shot and led a burial procession under a tight security blanket from the center of Kandahar city to the family's home in the village of Karz, some 20 kilometers away.
He was accompanied by his family and some of Afghanistan's most influential leaders, including at least one possible successor to Ahmad Wali Karzai's unofficial crown, Gul Agha Sherzai, currently the governor of eastern Nangarhar province.
The president knelt by the side of his brother's grave, weeping as the crowds looked on. "I came here to mourn the death of Ahmad Wali Karzai. He was our only hope for everything in Kandahar," cried one mourner, Khan Agha, as attack helicopters circled.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for one of the most high-profile assassinations of the last decade.
Ahmad Wali Karzai's power stemmed from his tribal and family connections and the fortune he accumulated. While outranked by the province's governor, he held the real power.
President Karzai wept and kissed the face of his dead brother Ahmad Wali Karzai, unofficially the most powerful man in southern province Kandahar, at a burial in their ancestral village attended by thousands of mourners.
Only hours after the body was lowered into the ground, the president appointed another brother, Shah Wali Karzai, as de facto leader of the Popalzai tribe to which the Karzai family belongs.
Two explosions were heard in Kandahar city by a Reuters witness soon after the burial, but officials said the ceremony passed without security problems. Foreign forces said they had carried out controlled detonations at a nearby airfield.
In another sign of the volatility of southern Afghanistan, the governor of neighboring Helmand province escaped a bomb attack on his motorcade en route to the burial.
Two security officials were injured in the attack in Kandahar's Maiwand district but the governor was unhurt and attended the burial, his spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said.
Ahmad Wali Karzai, a younger half brother of the president, whose influence belied his modest title as head of the Kandahar provincial council, was killed by a trusted family security guard at his home on Tuesday. President Karzai flew to Kandahar hours after his brother was shot and led a burial procession under a tight security blanket from the center of Kandahar city to the family's home in the village of Karz, some 20 kilometers away.
He was accompanied by his family and some of Afghanistan's most influential leaders, including at least one possible successor to Ahmad Wali Karzai's unofficial crown, Gul Agha Sherzai, currently the governor of eastern Nangarhar province.
The president knelt by the side of his brother's grave, weeping as the crowds looked on. "I came here to mourn the death of Ahmad Wali Karzai. He was our only hope for everything in Kandahar," cried one mourner, Khan Agha, as attack helicopters circled.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for one of the most high-profile assassinations of the last decade.
Ahmad Wali Karzai's power stemmed from his tribal and family connections and the fortune he accumulated. While outranked by the province's governor, he held the real power.
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