Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Qadir Laid to Rest in Home Province

Aired July 07, 2002 - 11:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In Jalalabad today, slain Afghan leader Haji Abdul Qadir was laid to rest in his home province. Qadir, one of the new government's three vice presidents, was gunned own yesterday by unknown assailants. CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now from Bagram with more on that story. Hi there, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Well, Haji Abdul Qadir laid to rest in his hometown of Jalalabad. As his coffin was lowered into the ground, seven shots were fired over it. He was laid to rest in a plot next to his brother Abdul Haq. Abdul Haq was killed by the Taliban late last year.

Now, Haji Abdul Qadir's coffin was taken to the cemetery on the back, it's strapped to the back of a gun carriage, that gun carriage pulled by an armored personnel carrier. Some 300 soldiers, we are told, marched along behind that coffin in a sign of respect, many thousands of people coming out on the streets of Jalalabad.

Checkpoints were in place, security was tight there. Security had also been tight earlier in the day in Kabul when several thousand people attended a prayer service at Kabul's main Idgar (ph) Mosque. That service was attended by the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai and attended also by many government ministers.

It was a half an hour prayer service in the capitol in honor of Haji Abdul Qadir before he was flown to be buried in his hometown of Jalalabad. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Now, Nic, no known assailants but are any particular individuals or groups suspected?

ROBERTSON: Well, we talked to a government official about and he put it this way. He said a man like Haji Qadir, who had been so involved in the armed struggles for so long inside Afghanistan, albeit very popular with some elements in the Pashtun ethnic group, we were told that he had made many enemies over the years.

It's not out of the bounds of expectation, they say, that it could be, that his murderer could come from within the Pashtun group. It could come from within any other ethnic group. His murder may not even be motivated by ethnicity. There are many other different reasons here, so the government at this time so far has only arrested ten people, we are told. Those were Haji Qadir's personal bodyguards left to him by the previous development minister. That was the ministry that Haji Abdul Qadir has recently taken over.

They are not implicated directly in his shooting, only we are told that they had not acted appropriately to stop his death, the shooting by two gunmen Noon Saturday here. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nic Robertson from Bagram, thank you very much for that report.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com