Qadir: Afghanistan's 'most important' Pashtun

Qadir

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Vice President Haji Abdul Qadir, who was assassinated Saturday by gunmen in Kabul, led a life of shifting alliances aimed at protecting Afghanistan's ethnic Pashtun clan.

"This is a double blow to the United States because he was the most honest, dependable man in the administration," said Afghanistan analyst Eric Margolis. "He is gone and the most important Pashtun is gone."

Qadir's family has ruled Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar off and on since the mid-19th Century, according to National Review. He was one of three vice presidents chosen by last month's grand council to serve in the Cabinet of President Hamid Karzai, and was a former governor of Nangarhar province.

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The magazine described Qadir as pro-Western and fiercely anti-drugs, despite the fact that, according to The Associated Press, Nangarhar is Afghanistan's second largest producer of opium, the raw material used to make heroin.

His older brother was the late Abdul Haq, a prominent Afghan commander who fought guerilla battles against Soviet and Communist Afghan troops in Kabul during the 1980s, according to Afghanistan Online.

Last year, Haq returned to Afghanistan in October as an envoy of deposed Afghan King Zahir Shah, trying to lure defectors from the Taliban. He was captured by Taliban fighters and hanged.

Qadir had secured his position as governor because of his "close ties" with Younis Khalis, a former muhajedin fighter and spiritual leader who has been linked to the Taliban, only to be ousted by Taliban forces in 1996.

His ouster as governor forced Qadir to take shelter with a former enemy, Ahmed Shah Massood and his Northern Alliance forces, where he and his forces fought with U.S. military aide to topple the Taliban regime.

Qadir has worn many hats as an Afghan leader. In addition to serving as a governor, deputy president and minister of public works, he also led the Arsala branch of the ethnic Pashtun clan, according to Newsday.

His Pashtun loyalties forced him to walk out of last year's talks in Bonn, Germany, aimed at organizing a post-Taliban Afghan government. Qadir briefly walked out in protest, complaining that the Pashtun clan was not fairly represented on the committee.