Taliban militants on Sunday intercepted the car of a government
official, killing him and taking away his driver and one guard in
southern Afghanistan's Zabul province, a provincial government
spokesman said.
Abdul Kayum Mujabadi, director of Commission for National
Reconciliation, a body established by Afghan government to persuade
militants to lay down arms and join the government's peace efforts,
was shot dead in Shahjoy district of Zabul, Zabul provincial
administration spokesman Gulab Shah Alikhail told Xinhua.
"Mujabadi was on the way to Kabul with his driver and one guard
when his car was stopped by the militants," the spokesman said.
Local police are conducting a search operation to recover the
two missing, he added.
The Taliban has yet to make any comment.
Rising militancy-related violence killed over 6,000 people in
the post-Taliban nation last year and analysts and NATO commanders
have expected an upsurge of guerrilla-style attacks by Taliban
militants in 2008.
(Xinhua News Agency, January 21, 2008)
