Kabul airport killing 'part of plot' Afghan leader says pilgrims not to blame for murder of minister
Luke Harding in Kabul and agencies
Saturday February 16, 2002
The GuardianThe brutal death of Afghanistan's new aviation minister - apparently lynched by a crowd of angry pilgrims at Kabul airport - took a bizarre twist yesterday after it was revealed he may have been the victim of an elaborate assasination plot. Witnesses to the grisly murder of Abdul Rahman said he was dragged from a plane by a mob incensed after being forced to wait for hours in freezing weather for flights to Mecca for the annual Hajj. It is believed Mr Rahman had chartered the only remaining jet in the national carrier's fleet to fly to New Delhi, his previous home.
However, last night the Afghan leader, Hamid Karzai, claimed the killing was a conspiracy and that several high-ranking Afghan government officials currently in Saudi Arabia would be arrested. "He was killed by people who planned it," Mr Karzai told reporters at a hastily called news conference. "We are asking the Saudis to arrest them and bring them back... We will try them. We will put them behind bars." It was unclear whether he was suggesting that officials incited the mob, or whether pilgrims gave cover to a deliberate attack.
He said the killers were part of a faction of the Northern Alliance with which Mr Rahman had broken. "All this... goes back to the days of the resistance," Mr Karzai said.
The information minister, Raheen Makhdoom, said: "This tragic incident was the result of a personal vendetta and private hostilities of a group of people. It has no political roots." The wanted men included General Abdullah Jan Tawhidi, in charge of Afghanistan's intelligence service and General Kalandar Beg, a deputy in the defence ministry.
Gen Tawhidi, Gen Beg and a justice ministry official named only as Halim were all thought to have left with pilgrims on flights for Saudi Arabia. Three people have been arrested in connection with the case. Only one has been identified: Abdul Rehim.
However, a State Department official in Washington expressed scepticism about Mr Karzai's claims of a conspiracy. The official said the riot was spontaneous and could not have been planned.
British-led peacekeeping troops deployed at Kabul airport have been criticised for failing to prevent the storming of the plane. The incident was seen as revealing the limitations of the British-dominated, 4,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), which is currently confined to Kabul.
The assassination theory will increase doubts about the ability of the new interim government to establish effective security in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who arrived in Kabul early yesterday on a one-day visit, said there was nothing the troops posted at the airport could have done. Mr Straw, who held talks with Mr Karzai, said a contingent of eight Isaf soldiers had earlier rescued another official, Ruhallah Aman, from the same group. "The official was being beaten up," he said. "He was certainly extracted from a very serious situation, if not mortal danger." The peacekeeping force has a presence at the wreckage-strewn airport, but is not in charge of security. Mr Straw said British soldiers had been unaware that the aviation minister was also in trouble, and were not "close by".
The incident on Thursday afternoon, hours before Mr Straw arrived at the airport, illustrated the new post-Taliban government's fragile hold on law and order. Initial reports of the killing had centred on mass action by a frustrated and angry mob. An airport employee said tensions had built throughout Thursday as the pilgrims waited in the cold. Many had paid $1,500 (£1,050) to get to Saudi Arabia - a fortune by Afghan standards - only to discover there was no plane for them. "They were very very upset," the employee said.
Mohammed Anif, a Kabul man who was waiting to see off his father on the pilgrimage, saw the crowd rush the plane after a rumour that it was about to take off. Before the plane was stormed, Mr Anif said he heard people in the crowd talking angrily about the minister using the aircraft for an official trip while they waited for a plane to Saudi Arabia. "They were saying that the Hajj was the most important thing, and how could he do this," Mr Anif said. "Some were saying they wanted to lie down in front of the plane to keep it from taking off, and others said, 'No, let's stop it another way'." Then he saw the pilgrims "running up the steps and inside the plane, and we saw struggles and a body thrown out of the plane".
The security force "knew there was an ongoing incident, but it happened very quickly", said Captain Graham Dunlop, a British spokesman for the peacekeepers. He said that the civilian area of the airport was under the control of the Afghan authorities. "We were not involved," Capt Dunlop said. "It's not our jurisdiction." Dozens of people gathered at Mr Rahman's Kabul home as word spread of his death.
Mr Rahman, 49, was trained as a medical doctor. He fled Afghanistan when the Taliban took over and had been living in exile in New Delhi. Mr Rahman had been a member of the Jamiat e-Islami party, a Northern Alliance faction, but during the Taliban years he switched his alliance to a group loyal to exiled king Zahir Shah. The Northern Alliance forms a large part of the interim government, although Mr Karzai is not a member.
Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002