By KUNA
Kabul : Armed men believed to be the anti-government Taliban militants gunned down an official involved in the government-backed reconciliation process designed to bring peace and stability to the war-ravaged country.
Abdul Qayum Mujaddidi, director of the Reconciliation Commission, was shot dead in the southern province of Zabul on Sunday, a provincial official said here Monday.
Spokesman for Zabul governor Gulab Shah Alikhel said the official was killed in Shajoy district while his driver and a guard were kidnapped by the attackers. Whereabouts of the two men were not known but police officials in the province said they had launched a search operation to recover the snatched vehicle and the two men.
The National Commission for Reconciliation was formed by the Afghan government a few years back to persuade the militants, waging a guerilla war against the foreign troops and Karzai government, to lay down arms and play their role in the reconstruction of the country, battered by nearly three decades of war and civil strife.
The commission is headed by former president and spiritual leader Sibghatullah Mujaddidi, who is also chairman of the Upper House of the Afghan parliament or the Meshrano Jirga. Alikhel said Qayum Mujaddid was on way from Zabul province to the central capital of Kabul. Taliban militants so far did not issue any comment.
A day earlier, five Afghan civilians were killed as their car hit a roadside landmine in Kandahar province, located in the same southern zone and one been the stronghold of Taliban militants.