The recent attempt to assassinate Hamid Karzai signals troubled times in Afghanistan, writes Iffat Malik from Islamabad Click to view caption As the first anniversary of 11 September approaches, Afghanistan has seen one of the most turbulent weeks since the fall of the Taliban. A failed attempt on the life of President Hamid Karzai, a bomb blast in Kabul that left at least 22 people dead, and fierce factional fighting in the eastern province of Paktia, all indicate that Afghanistan is still far from the peace and stability promised by the collapse of the Taliban. The assassination attempt was on Thursday. President Karzai had travelled to the Pashtoon stronghold of Kandahar to attend the wedding of his brother. When he left the governor's residence a young boy in the crowd approached him. As Karzai was talking to the boy, one of the governor's security guards opened fire on his car. An Afghan standing close by accosted the assassin, and both were then killed by Karzai's American bodyguards. Miraculously Karzai was unscathed, but a bullet apparently grazed the neck of the governor of Kandahar, Gul Agha Sherzai, who was sitting next to the president. He was discharged from hospital later that evening. If Hamid Karzai was shaken by his close shave with death, he did not show it. The president appeared calm and played down the incident: "I expect things like this to happen," he said. In view of the fact that one of his senior vice-presidents, Haji Abdul-Qadir, was gunned down outside his ministry in Kabul in July, Karzai has good reason to expect attempts on his own life. Soon after Abdul-Qadir's murder, the president bolstered his personal security with American special forces. It was they who killed the assassin on Thursday. Karzai is safe, but the ease with which a would- be assassin was able to attack the president will raise disturbing questions. The man responsible was identified as Abdul-Rehman. He came from the Kajaki area of Helmand province, and had been hired as a security guard for the governor just a few days before. This despite the fact that Helmand was a Taliban stronghold, and that tribesmen from Kajaki had been known to fire on US soldiers. An investigation is now underway into how Abdul--Rehman was recruited, and 17 people including the governor's security chief have been arrested. Speculation over who was behind this attempted assassination is focusing on the Taliban and Al-Qa'eda sympathisers and on former mujahideen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Until recently Hekmatyar had been in exile in Iran, but after being expelled from there he returned in secret to Afghanistan. In a taped message delivered to the BBC a few days before the Kandahar incident, he demanded the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Afghanistan and that Hamid Karzai be replaced. But both the identity of the assassin and the timing of the attack, just days before the anniversary of 11 September, point to the remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qa'eda being behind it. Hamid Karzai is treating the attack as an "isolated incident" but many observers are less complacent. A bomb blast in Kabul just three hours before the Kandahar attack could have been another "isolated incident", but it could also have been a signal from Al-Qa'eda activists that they are still a force to be reckoned with. The blast took place in the capital's main commercial area. According to witnesses, initially there was a small explosion on a bicycle. When people gathered to see what had happened, a second more powerful explosion took place in a taxi. The carnage was horrific; at least 22 people were killed and many more injured. Kabul has been hit by a number of small bomb blasts since August; one even went off outside the UN hostel. Those events, added to this latest attack, will add to the sense of insecurity in the capital and the country as a whole. So, too, the attempt on the life of Hamid Karzai, the lone figure holding the fragile central government together. "These things are independent acts," insisted Karzai, "They do not translate into violence all over the country." Factional fighting that broke out in the eastern province of Paktia on Sunday appeared to contradict his claim. There has been trouble in Paktia for many months, after Karzai replaced the local warlord Padhsah Khan Zadran as governor, with Hakim Taniwal. One reason for the change was that Khan had given misleading information to the Americans about Al-Qa'eda forces, causing them to bomb people who were actually Khan's Afghan rivals. Khan resisted being removed, leading to fighting in the region between rival forces. Neither Taniwal or Karzai had the military force to crush the warlord. On Sunday, radio reports that Khan had been arrested by the Americans enraged his followers and led them to attack the governor's house. The resultant clashes left 15 soldiers and civilians dead. Khan announced that he had not been arrested after all, and that the Americans had talked to him about reconciling with Taniwal and de- escalation in the region. But in the long-term, the problem of independent, often rebellious, warlords remains a headache for the Karzai administration. During his trip to the US on Sunday, Karzai stressed the need for more international assistance in maintaining peace in Afghanistan. It was a plea he has made many times before, with little success. Perhaps his close shave with death will persuade the Americans to change their mind. Even with Karzai as president, the security situation in Afghanistan hardly gives cause for complacency, but his death would guarantee anarchy.
