Afghan president's brother murdered

Ahmad Wali Karzai, the half-brother of Hamid Karzai assassinated by bodyguard; Taliban claims responsibility

The half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was slain in his southern Afghanistan home by a bodyguard yesterday.


Opposition leaders accused Ahmad Wali Karzaiu00a0of opium trafficking
and of exacerbating the insurgency by marginalising
many of the region's powerful tribes

A member of Ahmed Wali Karzai's security team reportedly shot him twice once in the head and once in the chest with an AK-47.

The Afghan president confirmed the murder, saying his brother's death reflects the overall suffering of the country.

"This is the life of Afghanistan's people," President Karzai told reporters with tears in his eyes at the presidential palace.

"Each of us suffer this, and we are hopeful to put an end to all the suffering of the people of Afghanistan." He added, "To Allah we belong and to Him is our return," the president said, quoting a verse from the Koran.

Wali Karzai, who'd been the target of several prior murder attempts, was the focus of much criticism, including charges that he ran drugs and worked for the CIA.

A motive for the killing was not immediately clear. A spokesman for the Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi said, "This is one of our biggest achievements since theu00a0 operation began. We assigned Sardar Mohammad to kill him recently and Sardar Mohammad is also martyred."

Ahmad Wali Karzai ruled Kandahar city and the surrounding province as a personal fiefdom and was a deeply divisive figure.

Assassinations

Martin Luther King
On April 4, 1968, a shot rang out at the motel room of King. Till today, it is still not known who killed King but many dispute it was White supremacists who opposed his ideas of racial integration.

John F Kennedy
Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime but was shot and killed two days later.

Indira Gandhi
On 31 October 1984, two of Gandhi's Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, assassinated her with their service weapons at her home.