Ahmed Wali Karzai
Encyclopedia
Ahmed Wali Karzai was a prominent politician
in Afghanistan
and the younger paternal half-brother of Afghan President
Hamid Karzai
and son of Abdul Ahad Karzai
. As an elder of the Popalzai
Pashtun
tribe, he was elected to the Kandahar Provincial Council
in 2005 and served as its chairman. Karzai formerly lived in the U.S.
city of Chicago
, Illinois
, where he worked in a restaurant owned by his family. He returned to Afghanistan
following the removal of the Taliban government
in late 2001. He was shot and killed by one of his bodyguards on July 12, 2011.
, located in the Dand district
of Kandahar
in Afghanistan
. He is the son of Abdul Ahad Karzai
and brother of Afghan President
Hamid Karzai
, Mahmud Karzai and Quayum Karzai
. He attended Habibia High School
in Kabul
but was not able to finish his studies due to the Soviet war in Afghanistan
. He migrated to neighbouring Pakistan
and then went to the United States
where lived for about ten years. He married there and has two sons and three daughters.
He came to political prominence in Afghanistan following the US occupation of the country in 2001, where he was a key ally of the US military in the country's south. He was elected to the Kandahar Provincial Council
in 2005 and exercised influence in the province to the extent that he was described as "effectively the governor". At the time of his death, he was the Council's chairman.
A few days before his death, Ahmed Wali Karzai appeared on a British television programme, "Afghanistan: The Unknown Country," presented by Lyse Doucet
, at his home in Kandahar, talking about public perceptions of him. Doucet said: "Like most strong men, he depended on family and fellow tribesmen to protect him."
cable alleged that much of the actual business of running the Afghan city of Kandahar
"takes place out of public sight, where Ahmed Wali Karzai operates, parallel to formal government structures, through a network of political clans that use state institutions to protect and enable licit and illicit enterprises." In addition, James Risen
of the New York Times and others stated that Ahmed Wali Karzai may have been involved in the Afghan opium and heroin trade
. This was denied by Karzai, who called the charges political propaganda
and stated he was a "victim of vicious politics."
In meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, including a 2006 session with former US Ambassador to Afghanistan
, Ronald E. Neumann
, the CIA
's station chief and their British counterparts, American officials talked about the rumors in hopes that the president might move his brother out of the country, said several people who took part in or were briefed on the talks. "We thought the concern expressed to Karzai might be enough to get him out of there," one official said. President Karzai has resisted, however, demanding clear-cut evidence of wrongdoing, several officials said. "We don't have the kind of hard, direct evidence that you could take to get a criminal indictment," a White House
official said. Ahmed Wali Karzai dismissed the allegations as politically motivated attacks by longtime rival groups in his country.
Before the 2009 Afghan presidential election
, Wali Karzai and Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, former governor of the Helmand Province
and a member of the Upper House of the Afghan parliament, were accused of vote rigging. After the election, reports mentioned that all those running in the election were involved in electoral fraud
.
to rent the former residence of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar
. However, Karzai has denied taking any payment from the CIA. U.S. Senator
John Kerry
and former Afghan Ambassador to the United States, Said Tayeb Jawad
, defended Karzai in recent years, Kerry saying "We should not condemn Ahmed Wali Karzai or damage our critical relations with his brother, President Karzai, on the basis of newspaper articles or rumors." and Jawad saying, "There is presence of the intelligence, there's presence of many institutions of the United States and NATO countries in Afghanistan, why don't they come up with a clear evidence of any corruption involving the president or his family?
and at least two attacks against his office in Kandahar: one in November 2008 and the other in April 2009. According to Karzai himself, he had survived a total of nine assassination attempts.
On 12 July 2011, Karzai was assassinated by his long-time head of security, Sardar Mohammad. Reports say that Wali was shot twice with a pistol, once in the head and once in the chest, as he was coming out of the bathroom inside his residence. Abdul Raziq, a top official from the Afghan National Police
at Kandahar, stated that the assailant Sardar Mohammad was well known by the Karzai
family. He had served as Wali Karzai's most trusted security guard for the last seven years. "As he entered Wali's room, Wali came out of his bathroom. Mohammad fired twice at Wali without any conversation passing between the two. Wali received one bullet in the chest and second in the head," Abdul Raziq said. The assailant was immediately killed by other bodyguards and then his body was hanged at a city square on public view. In the meantime, Karzai's body was taken to Mirwais Hospital
in Kandahar.
Thousands of people turned up for his funeral the next day, led by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and many more waited in buses where his body lay to be taken to his hometown of Karz
. Security was tightened around the funeral procession and some reports indicated Hamid Karzai's elite security team were deployed to secure Kandahar
, where the funeral was held. At the funeral procession Hamid Karzai issued a message to the Taliban: Hamid Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer said that "We know we live in a dangerous country. We know that security has to be tight all the time and the president knows [this]. He's got good security and that is not a worry for the president. The president is upset, he is still in grief, about the death of his brother. Wali was a very close brother of the president." En route to the funeral Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal escaped an assassination attempt, while later in the evening two more blasts went off in Kandahar. Though Hamid Karzai led the funeral procession, he was not present at a memorial service which was attacked by a suicide bomber killing the senior cleric of the mosque Hikmatullah Hikmat, the head of the Provincial Ulema Council, who died along with three others while 13 others were also wounded.
Reactions
President Hamid Karzai issued a statement on the day his brother died saying: "My younger brother was martyred in his house today. This is the life of all Afghan people, I hope these miseries which every Afghan family faces will one day end" Afghan families, every one of us, have suffered from it, and we hope, God willing, for our suffering to be over. US General David Petraeus as well as other top NATO personnel serving in Afghanistan, officials at the White House
and many world leaders condemned the assassination.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed that one of their agents was behind the assassination saying, "Today in Kandahar city, Hamid Karzai's brother was killed during the Operation al-Badr... We hired a person by the name of Sadar Mohammad, who was hired for this job for some time now. Ahmed Wali Karzai was punished for all his wrongdoings."
However, according to The Christian Science Monitor
, the Taliban has "a dubious record of claiming responsibility for attacks it had nothing to do with", and its claim has been denied by several sources. Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, head of the counter-terrorism department at the Interior Ministry, told Reuters
that "It appears Ahmed Wali Karzai has been killed by one of his bodyguard, and there was nobody from outside involved." The news was confirmed by Zalmai Ayubi, the spokesman for Kandahar province, as well as by Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. Following the killing police were mobilised in Kandahar and helicopters were seen overhead as checkpoints were locked down leading towards the hospital his body was taken to.
Investigation into the murder
Investigators believe that Sardar Mohammad may have been a Taliban sleeper agent
or a government defector. Mahmud Karzai, Karzai's other brother, stated that Sardar Mohammad traveled to the Pakistani city of Quetta
within the past three months to meet with the Shura Council
of the Taliban. Mahmoud Karzai claimed that he has been acting very erratically in recent weeks, including sleeping poorly
, moving from house to house during nights, acting suspiciously toward his men and demanding to know who they were talking to on their mobile phone
s. It suggests that he may have been using narcotic
s since the area is well known for opium production
.
Politics of Afghanistan
The politics of Afghanistan consists of the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly, with a president serving as the head of state and commander-in-chief of the military. The nation is currently led by the Karzai administration under President Hamid Karzai who is backed by two vice...
in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and the younger paternal half-brother of Afghan President
President of Afghanistan
Afghanistan has only been a republic between 1973 and 1992 and from 2001 onwards. Before 1973, it was a monarchy that was governed by a variety of kings, emirs or shahs...
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
and son of Abdul Ahad Karzai
Abdul Ahad Karzai
Abdul Ahad Karzai was a politician in Afghanistan, who served as the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Afghanistan under King Zahir Shah in the 1960s. He was the son of Khair Mohammad Khan and father of current Afghan President Hamid Karzai...
. As an elder of the Popalzai
Popalzai
Popalzai or Popalzay are Durrani Pashtuns.-Origin:According to Hyat Khan's history of Afghanistan, from their progenitor Bor Tareen, otherwise known as Abdal, are descended two main divisions: the Zirak and the Panjpai...
Pashtun
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
tribe, he was elected to the Kandahar Provincial Council
Kandahar Provincial Council
Kandahar Provincial Council is a Province level legislature or Shura for Kandahar, Afghanistan.Elections were held in 2005....
in 2005 and served as its chairman. Karzai formerly lived in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
city of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, where he worked in a restaurant owned by his family. He returned to Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
following the removal of the Taliban government
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was founded in 1996 when the Taliban began their rule of Afghanistan and ended with their fall from power in 2001...
in late 2001. He was shot and killed by one of his bodyguards on July 12, 2011.
Early life and political career
Karzai was born in 1961 in the village of KarzKarz
Karz is a village in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, near the city of Kandahar. The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is from Karz....
, located in the Dand district
Daman District, Afghanistan
Daman district is situated in the central part of the Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. It borders Panjwai and Kandahar districts to the west, Shah Wali Kot District to the north, Zabul Province to the northeast, Arghistan and Spin Boldak districts to the east and Reg District to the south. The...
of Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. He is the son of Abdul Ahad Karzai
Abdul Ahad Karzai
Abdul Ahad Karzai was a politician in Afghanistan, who served as the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Afghanistan under King Zahir Shah in the 1960s. He was the son of Khair Mohammad Khan and father of current Afghan President Hamid Karzai...
and brother of Afghan President
President of Afghanistan
Afghanistan has only been a republic between 1973 and 1992 and from 2001 onwards. Before 1973, it was a monarchy that was governed by a variety of kings, emirs or shahs...
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai
Hamid Karzai, GCMG is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001...
, Mahmud Karzai and Quayum Karzai
Quayum Karzai
Abdul Qayum Karzai is President Hamid Karzai's older brother, a businessman and a former member of the Wolesi Jirga, Afghanistan's National Assembly.-Family:...
. He attended Habibia High School
Habibia High School
Habibia High School is a school in Kabul, Afghanistan, which has educated many of the former and current Afghan elite, including President Hamid Karzai and the country's most famous musician Ahmad Zahir. It was founded by King Habibullah Khan in 1903....
in Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
but was not able to finish his studies due to the Soviet war in Afghanistan
Soviet war in Afghanistan
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist-Leninist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the Afghan Mujahideen and foreign "Arab–Afghan" volunteers...
. He migrated to neighbouring Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and then went to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
where lived for about ten years. He married there and has two sons and three daughters.
He came to political prominence in Afghanistan following the US occupation of the country in 2001, where he was a key ally of the US military in the country's south. He was elected to the Kandahar Provincial Council
Kandahar Provincial Council
Kandahar Provincial Council is a Province level legislature or Shura for Kandahar, Afghanistan.Elections were held in 2005....
in 2005 and exercised influence in the province to the extent that he was described as "effectively the governor". At the time of his death, he was the Council's chairman.
A few days before his death, Ahmed Wali Karzai appeared on a British television programme, "Afghanistan: The Unknown Country," presented by Lyse Doucet
Lyse Doucet
Lyse Doucet is a senior BBC presenter and special correspondent from New Brunswick, Canada. She works for both BBC World Service radio and BBC World News television, and also reports for BBC Radio 4 and BBC News in the UK, including reporting on Newsnight.-Education:Doucet was born in Bathurst,...
, at his home in Kandahar, talking about public perceptions of him. Doucet said: "Like most strong men, he depended on family and fellow tribesmen to protect him."
Allegations of corruption
A June 2009 U.S. embassyU.S. Embassy, Kabul
The Embassy of the United States in Kabul is the diplomatic mission of the United States in Afghanistan. It is located in the Wazir Akbar Khan section of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and is home to the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan. Ryan Crocker is the current Ambassador. Richard Holbrooke, who died...
cable alleged that much of the actual business of running the Afghan city of Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
"takes place out of public sight, where Ahmed Wali Karzai operates, parallel to formal government structures, through a network of political clans that use state institutions to protect and enable licit and illicit enterprises." In addition, James Risen
James Risen
James Risen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist for The New York Times who previously worked for the Los Angeles Times. He has written or co-written many articles concerning U.S...
of the New York Times and others stated that Ahmed Wali Karzai may have been involved in the Afghan opium and heroin trade
Opium production in Afghanistan
Afghanistan has been the greatest illicit opium producer in the entire world, ahead of Burma and the "Golden Triangle" since 1992, excluding the year 2001. Afghanistan is the main producer of opium in the "Golden Crescent". Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since U.S....
. This was denied by Karzai, who called the charges political propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
and stated he was a "victim of vicious politics."
In meetings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, including a 2006 session with former US Ambassador to Afghanistan
United States Ambassador to Afghanistan
The United States Ambassador to Afghanistan is the official representative of the President of the United States to the head of state of Afghanistan....
, Ronald E. Neumann
Ronald E. Neumann
Ronald E. Neumann was formerly the United States Ambassador to Afghanistan and previously served as ambassador to Bahrain and Algeria . He is the son of former ambassador Robert G. Neumann and traveled extensively after college in Afghanistan while his father was ambassador there...
, the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
's station chief and their British counterparts, American officials talked about the rumors in hopes that the president might move his brother out of the country, said several people who took part in or were briefed on the talks. "We thought the concern expressed to Karzai might be enough to get him out of there," one official said. President Karzai has resisted, however, demanding clear-cut evidence of wrongdoing, several officials said. "We don't have the kind of hard, direct evidence that you could take to get a criminal indictment," a White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
official said. Ahmed Wali Karzai dismissed the allegations as politically motivated attacks by longtime rival groups in his country.
Before the 2009 Afghan presidential election
Afghan presidential election, 2009
The 2009 presidential election in Afghanistan was characterized by lack of security, low voter turnout and widespread ballot stuffing, intimidation, and other electoral fraud....
, Wali Karzai and Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, former governor of the Helmand Province
Helmand Province
Helmand is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the southwest of the country. Its capital is Lashkar Gah. The Helmand River flows through the mainly desert region, providing water for irrigation....
and a member of the Upper House of the Afghan parliament, were accused of vote rigging. After the election, reports mentioned that all those running in the election were involved in electoral fraud
Electoral fraud
Electoral fraud is illegal interference with the process of an election. Acts of fraud affect vote counts to bring about an election result, whether by increasing the vote share of the favored candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates or both...
.
CIA connections
In October 2009 the New York Times reported that Ahmed Wali Karzai received payments from the CIA for "a variety of services", including the recruitment of the Kandahar Strike Force, an Afghan paramilitary force run by the CIA in the Kandahar region. It also stated that he was paid for allowing the CIA and U.S. special forcesUnited States Special Operations Forces
United States Special Operations Forces under United States Special Operations Command are active and reserve component forces of U.S. Military...
to rent the former residence of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar
Mohammed Omar
Mullah Mohammed Omar , often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban movement that operates in Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001, under the official title "Head of the Supreme Council"...
. However, Karzai has denied taking any payment from the CIA. U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
and former Afghan Ambassador to the United States, Said Tayeb Jawad
Said Tayeb Jawad
Said Tayeb Jawad was appointed Afghan Ambassador to the U.S. on December 4, 2003, by President Hamid Karzai and served as Ambassador until September 22, 2010. He also served as Afghanistan’s non-resident Ambassador to Mexico, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina. He previously was Chief of Staff to the...
, defended Karzai in recent years, Kerry saying "We should not condemn Ahmed Wali Karzai or damage our critical relations with his brother, President Karzai, on the basis of newspaper articles or rumors." and Jawad saying, "There is presence of the intelligence, there's presence of many institutions of the United States and NATO countries in Afghanistan, why don't they come up with a clear evidence of any corruption involving the president or his family?
Assassination
Karzai survived a number of assassination attempts by Taliban militantsTaliban insurgency
The Taliban insurgency took root shortly after the group's fall from power following the 2001 war in Afghanistan. The Taliban continue to attack Afghan, U.S., and other ISAF troops and many terrorist incidents attributable to them have been registered. The war has also spread over the southern and...
and at least two attacks against his office in Kandahar: one in November 2008 and the other in April 2009. According to Karzai himself, he had survived a total of nine assassination attempts.
On 12 July 2011, Karzai was assassinated by his long-time head of security, Sardar Mohammad. Reports say that Wali was shot twice with a pistol, once in the head and once in the chest, as he was coming out of the bathroom inside his residence. Abdul Raziq, a top official from the Afghan National Police
Afghan National Police
The Afghan National Police - ANP - is the primary national police force in Afghanistan. It serves as a single law enforcement agency all across the country. The Afghan police force was first created with the establishment of the Afghan nation in the early 18th century...
at Kandahar, stated that the assailant Sardar Mohammad was well known by the Karzai
Karzai
Karzai may refer to:*Abdul Ahad Karzai, father of Hamid Karzai*Ahmed Wali Karzai, half-brother of Hamid Karzai*Habibullah Karzai, uncle of Hamid Karzai*Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan*Hekmat Karzai, cousin of Hamid Karzai...
family. He had served as Wali Karzai's most trusted security guard for the last seven years. "As he entered Wali's room, Wali came out of his bathroom. Mohammad fired twice at Wali without any conversation passing between the two. Wali received one bullet in the chest and second in the head," Abdul Raziq said. The assailant was immediately killed by other bodyguards and then his body was hanged at a city square on public view. In the meantime, Karzai's body was taken to Mirwais Hospital
Mirwais Hospital
The Mirwais Hospital is a hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It is named after Mirwais Hotak, who is known in the area as Mirwais Neeka . It along with a hospital in Quetta are the only advance medical facilities in the area....
in Kandahar.
Thousands of people turned up for his funeral the next day, led by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and many more waited in buses where his body lay to be taken to his hometown of Karz
Karz
Karz is a village in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, near the city of Kandahar. The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is from Karz....
. Security was tightened around the funeral procession and some reports indicated Hamid Karzai's elite security team were deployed to secure Kandahar
Kandahar
Kandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
, where the funeral was held. At the funeral procession Hamid Karzai issued a message to the Taliban: Hamid Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer said that "We know we live in a dangerous country. We know that security has to be tight all the time and the president knows [this]. He's got good security and that is not a worry for the president. The president is upset, he is still in grief, about the death of his brother. Wali was a very close brother of the president." En route to the funeral Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal escaped an assassination attempt, while later in the evening two more blasts went off in Kandahar. Though Hamid Karzai led the funeral procession, he was not present at a memorial service which was attacked by a suicide bomber killing the senior cleric of the mosque Hikmatullah Hikmat, the head of the Provincial Ulema Council, who died along with three others while 13 others were also wounded.
Reactions
President Hamid Karzai issued a statement on the day his brother died saying: "My younger brother was martyred in his house today. This is the life of all Afghan people, I hope these miseries which every Afghan family faces will one day end" Afghan families, every one of us, have suffered from it, and we hope, God willing, for our suffering to be over. US General David Petraeus as well as other top NATO personnel serving in Afghanistan, officials at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
and many world leaders condemned the assassination.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed that one of their agents was behind the assassination saying, "Today in Kandahar city, Hamid Karzai's brother was killed during the Operation al-Badr... We hired a person by the name of Sadar Mohammad, who was hired for this job for some time now. Ahmed Wali Karzai was punished for all his wrongdoings."
However, according to The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
, the Taliban has "a dubious record of claiming responsibility for attacks it had nothing to do with", and its claim has been denied by several sources. Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, head of the counter-terrorism department at the Interior Ministry, told Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
that "It appears Ahmed Wali Karzai has been killed by one of his bodyguard, and there was nobody from outside involved." The news was confirmed by Zalmai Ayubi, the spokesman for Kandahar province, as well as by Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. Following the killing police were mobilised in Kandahar and helicopters were seen overhead as checkpoints were locked down leading towards the hospital his body was taken to.
Investigation into the murder
Investigators believe that Sardar Mohammad may have been a Taliban sleeper agent
Sleeper agent
A sleeper agent is a spy who is placed in a target country or organization, not to undertake an immediate mission, but rather to act as a potential asset if activated...
or a government defector. Mahmud Karzai, Karzai's other brother, stated that Sardar Mohammad traveled to the Pakistani city of Quetta
Quetta
is the largest city and the provincial capital of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan. Known as the "Fruit Garden of Pakistan" due to the diversity of its plant and animal wildlife, Quetta is home to the Hazarganji Chiltan National Park, which contains some of the rarest species of wildlife in the...
within the past three months to meet with the Shura Council
Quetta Shura
The Quetta Shura is a militant organization composed of top leadership of the Afghan Taliban, that is believed to be based since about 2001 in the city of Quetta in the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The Shura was formed after the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan was toppled in late 2001 and the...
of the Taliban. Mahmoud Karzai claimed that he has been acting very erratically in recent weeks, including sleeping poorly
Insomnia
Insomnia is most often defined by an individual's report of sleeping difficulties. While the term is sometimes used in sleep literature to describe a disorder demonstrated by polysomnographic evidence of disturbed sleep, insomnia is often defined as a positive response to either of two questions:...
, moving from house to house during nights, acting suspiciously toward his men and demanding to know who they were talking to on their mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s. It suggests that he may have been using narcotic
Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...
s since the area is well known for opium production
Opium production in Afghanistan
Afghanistan has been the greatest illicit opium producer in the entire world, ahead of Burma and the "Golden Triangle" since 1992, excluding the year 2001. Afghanistan is the main producer of opium in the "Golden Crescent". Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since U.S....
.