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Former Afghan prime minister shot dead

By DPA

Kabul : Abdul Saboor Farid, a former mujahideen prime minister and now a parliament member, has been assassinated here, police said.

Farid, a member of the upper house from Kapisa province, was shot dead in front of his house in the northern part of Kabul Wednesday night, said Zemaria Bashary, an interior ministry spokesman.

Farid was shot several times from a moving Corolla model car in Khairkhana as he was entering his house. No group has taken responsibility for the murder.

Farid previously had close ties with mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who currently leads a group of insurgents that fight the US-backed government along with Taliban fighters.

He briefly served as a prime minister during the mujahideen’s government in 1992 when Afghanistan entered into a bloody civil war.

Meanwhile, at least one person was killed and 14 people, including seven army officers, were wounded when a bomb hidden in a fruit-selling cart was detonated by remote control in Kabul, the chief of investigation branch of Kabul Police said.

“The driver of the bus was killed while seven army officers and seven civilians riding on a van were wounded,” Paktiawal said.

However, the defence ministry said that 19 army soldiers and three civilians were wounded in the blast carried out “by enemies of Afghanistan”, a term often used by Afghan authorities to describe the Taliban insurgents.

Both the bus and a van skidded off the road while the cart in which the bomb was placed was blown to pieces.

“We were riding on the bus when suddenly there was an explosion. I don’t know what happened,” said Niaz Mohammad, an employee of the defence ministry who was slightly wounded. “Several friends of mine were killed and wounded.”