International

Karzai vows to ensure security

KABUL Feb. 17. Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, said today he would do everything necessary to ensure security after last week's assassination of the Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister and an attack on British security forces.

Mr. Karzai vowed stern punishment for the killers of Abdul Rahman at Kabul airport on Thursday night, and said he would seek more help from the international community if security deteriorated.

He also dismissed fears that the minister's murder, allegedly by members of a powerful faction of the Northern Alliance, which makes up the core of the interim administration, could split his Government.

``The people that committed the crime will be dealt with very, very sternly,'' Mr. Karzai told a news conference at the presidential palace. ``There will not be any lenient hand.''

``They have committed a murder, let the courts decide on that,'' he said.

Mr. Karzai said five people were being held in Kabul in connection with Rahman's killing, which was initially blamed on Haj pilgrims enraged by delays in flights to Saudi Arabia.

Two other suspects were being hunted in Afghanistan and Mr. Karzai said he was confident three other suspects, who fled to Saudi Arabia on a pilgrim flight, would be sent back to Afghanistan. He said he was meeting the Saudi ambassador and expected to discuss the case with him. — Reuters

Telegraph reports:

The pilot of the plane from which the minister was dragged out before he was killed, had pleaded for help on his radio for more than two hours as an angry mob gathered around the aircraft, according to reports.

Aman Ullah Khan, who is leading the Government inquiry in the killing, said that the airliner's "black box'' held evidence to indict Ministry of Interior officials who spoke to the pilot. He said that it was unlikely that nearby British and French U.N. forces did not hear or understand the pleas being made.

The revelations lend credence to claims that Abdul Rahman was assassinated by political rivals.

Ullah Khan, who is also a Minister, said that five to six men stormed the plane by breaking through a cockpit window "with the intention of killing the minister''.

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