Karzai asks for investigation into killing of cousin in family feud; relatives skeptical

Karzai orders investigation into cousin’s slaying

BALTIMORE — American and Afghan relatives of Afghan President Hamid Karzai cast doubt Tuesday on Afghanistan’s move to investigate the slaying of a young Karzai family member, saying the Afghan government does not want to bring the suspected killer to justice in part because of his U.S. military connectons.

Karzai said Tuesday in Kabul that he has asked Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry to investigate the slaying of a young relative in a possible revenge killing connected to a family feud.

Relatives of the president, including the slain teenager’s father, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that they believed Karzai’s government has little interest in bringing the suspect to justice. One American relative said he had turned to the FBi for help.

Mohammad Suliman Karzai, a cousin who lives in Brookeville, Md., said Tuesday that he had contacted the FBI and had been interviewed by a federal agent. FBI officials would not discuss whether the agency was involved in the case.

The October killing of 18-year-old Waheed Karzai in southern Afghanistan attracted little attention before it was reported this week by The New York Times.

Karzai was asked about it Tuesday during a news conference with the visiting NATO chief, and said that he had turned the matter over to the Interior Ministry.

The Times report raised questions about whether Karzai’s administration was trying to downplay the killing and whether powerful families could escape investigation, a sensitive issue amid rising concerns about corruption and impunity in Karzai’s government.

Waheed Karzai was shot to death Oct. 16 in Karz, the president’s hometown in Kandahar province. He was the son of one of the president’s cousins, Yar Mohammad Karzai.

Relatives believe one of the president’s first cousins, Hashmat Karzai, shot the teenager as revenge for a so-called honor killing — a murder spurred by a marriage-related insult — that Yar Mohammad Karzai, 62, allegedly committed three decades ago.

“Hashmat and his crew came into my house and killed my son. He killed my son to put deep pain on me,” Yar Mohammad Karzai told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday from his home in Karz. The father’s comments were translated by Mohammad Suliman Karzai, who was on the same conference call.

Hashmat Karzai, 40, could not immediately be reached for comment, but he told the Times he did not kill Waheed and that the slaying was carried out by drug dealers who mistakenly went to the wrong house.

The Afghan leader said Tuesday that it was not yet clear what had happened.

“Anything can be possible, so we will have to wait and investigate if the truth is this, that an accident occurred … or there is something else going on that’s more conspiratorial. We don’t know,” Hamid Karzai said.

“Both sides have contacted me within the family,” the president said. “The Ministry of Interior is also investigating the issue.”

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Zemeri Bashary, said Karzai ordered the ministry to begin investigating the killing Sunday, the same day the newspaper report was published. He said counterterrorism police and criminal investigators were assisting local officials, who began looking into the killing earlier.

The victim, who died three days after he was wounded, told his father and several other people that Hashmat Karzai was the person who shot him, Yar Mohammad Karzai said. Waheed’s 12-year-old sister, who witnessed the shooting, also identified Hashmat as the killer, her father said.

Yar Mohammad Karzai said he was frustrated that the president took so long to acknowledge the slaying.

“He did not even give me a condolence call. He didn’t call me. I am his cousin. It’s two months later. Thanks to The New York Times, that brought this story out, I got his attention,” Yar Mohammad Karzai said.

Yar Mohammad Karzai and his relatives believe the government is trying to cover up the slaying because of Hashmat Karzai’s connections to the president and the U.S.

Hashmat Karzai heads the Afghanistan-based Asia Security Group, which guards five U.S. military bases in the country. Hekmat Karzai, Hashmat’s younger brother, runs the Center for Conflict and Peace Studies, a Kabul-based think tank that supports the government.

Col. Wayne Shanks, a U.S. military spokesman, declined to comment on the feud allegations. He said Asia Security Group got the contracts because “it was judged to have the best service for the best cost.”

Noor Karzai, 40, another Karzai cousin who also lives in Maryland, said Waheed’s death was about more than just a family feud.

“The whole world and the United States should know that this is where our tax dollars are going. These thugs are getting rich and killing an innocent 18-year-old boy,” Noor Karzai said. “In the long picture, it ruins the U.S. image in Afghanistan.”

Faiez reported from Kabul and Nuckols reported from Baltimore. Associated Press writers Dusan Stojanovic and Jim Heintz in Kabul contributed to this report.