Thousands of Afghans mourned assassinated Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir Sunday and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai vowed to track down the killers. Qadir's coffin, draped in flower-strewn velvet and flanked by two Afghan flags, was followed into the gold and white Eid Gha mosque by Karzai and former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, both wearing traditional Afghan dress. (Read photo caption)

Qadir, a former anti-Soviet Mujahideen leader in eastern Afghanistan, was shot dead Saturday as he drove away from his first day of office in the center of Kabul.

"If our investigation team lacks any expertise, we will ask our foreign friends and related organizations for help," Karzai told Kabul state radio.

"The martyrdom of Qadir, who played a heroic role during (the fight against Soviet occupation), is a loss for which there is no compensation."

Helicopters buzzed through the blue skies over the city as Afghan soldiers and white-helmeted police patrolled the roads leading to the mosque, near one of the most war-ravaged areas of downtown Kabul.

President Karzai insisted Qadir's murder would not be allowed to destabilize the country's fragile, multi-ethnic government.

"In the course of history, such things happen. But it doesn't weaken the Afghan will for peace and stability. It strengthens it," Karzai said.

It was not clear who was responsible for the assassination.

The only thing that was clear was that Qadir would not have risen to the power he had without making enemies -- especially within the lucrative drugs trade between eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan -- and those enemies would all be armed.

Qadir was one of the few Pashtuns in the Northern Alliance which swept the Taliban from power last year, backed by U.S. airpower, prompting speculation also that this might have been a Taliban hit.

Qadir, a Pashtun like Karzai, had been especially chosen as Pashtuns had complained of being under-represented in the interim government set up in December.

But there have been reports of increased feuding between warlords in the north and northeast and a U.S. commander said there had been a couple of rocket attacks on the airport in the city of Khost, southeast of Kabul.

Qadir's assassination also follows the errant U.S. bombing of a wedding party in the central province of Uruzgan, a Pashtun area and former Taliban stronghold, which killed 48 civilians.

Karzai's biggest headache until the daylight murder was how to appease his fellow Pashtuns after the bombing and yet still keep the Americans on board in the fight against the al Qaeda movement of Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"Karzai is deeply affected by (Qadir's) death," said presidential spokesman Sayed Fazl Akbar Saturday. "He is sad as an
Afghan. He is upset because he lost a prominent member of his government and a Pashtun."

A five-man delegation has been formed to investigate the assassination, including Karim Khalili, one of the original four vice-presidents, the interior minister, rural development minister and head of intelligence.

"It is too early to say who was behind the assassination," Akbar told Reuters. "It is not appropriate to judge before launching an investigation that al Qaeda or Taliban or whoever was behind it."

Sharpshooters kept watch from rooftops, while those mourners allowed in were subjected to strict security checks.

TEMPERS FRAY

Tempers frayed, however, and at one point an Afghan soldier slapped a Japanese woman photographer and raised his rifle at a colleague who tried to protect her.

Thousands of mourners thronged the route of the cortege, some weeping openly as the coffin passed.

After the brief ceremony was over, government officials accompanied the body for burial to the eastern city of Jalalabad where Qadir was once governor and still retained a power base.

According to the Afghan Islamic Press, he was buried in Ameer Shaheed Gardens where former Afghan king Amanullah Khan and some of his family members were also buried.

Seven shots were fired into the air as his coffin was lowered into the grave. Stones and a mound of earth were piled on top of his coffin.

His grave is near that of his brother, veteran anti-Soviet guerrilla Abdul Haq, who was executed by the Taliban last October while inside Afghanistan fomenting dissent.

Many of the men who had gathered to greet the coffin of the one-time mujahideen hero wept openly as it was strapped to the back of a gun-carriage in Jalalabad.

CITY KNOWN FOR ITS OPIUM

It was hauled by a Soviet-era armored personnel carrier along the lush streets of the city renowned for its opium crop. Some 300 soldiers marched behind.

The cortege made its way past a giant billboard which featured a painting of Abdul Haq and read: "Honorable guests most welcome to Nangarhar ... the land of jihad (holy struggle), culture, knowledge and peace."

Qadir's death represents a serious setback to Karzai's efforts to build a stable government capable of leading the country out of 23 years of war toward elections in 18 months time.

Police have arrested 10 security guards who were supposed to have been keeping watch when Qadir was gunned down.
His death touched a nerve among relatives, friends and ordinary Afghans.

"The president must launch an immediate investigation," a close relative said. "He must find out the real culprits."

"Karzai has to do whatever is necessary to stop the violence," said Navid Bakhsh, a 43-year-old civil servant in Kabul. "Words on TV and radio don't help, there must be action. Disarmament (of the warlords) should start."

Tuesday will be a day of mourning.

PHOTO CAPTION

Friends and relatives of assassinated Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir pray as they begin to bury his coffin in Jalalabad July 7, 2002. The body was buried in the eastern city where Qadir -- a former anti-Soviet Mujahideen leader -- was once governor and still retained a power base. Photo by Natalie Behring/Reuters
- Jul 07 1:29 PM ET