KABUL, 30 May 2005 — Suspected Taleban militants yesterday shot dead a leading Islamic cleric in southern Afghanistan, an official said. Maulvi Abdullah Fayyaz, chief of Kandahar’s Islamic Council, was killed in front of his office by unidentified gunmen, deputy police chief General Mohammed Salim told AFP.
“Two armed men riding on a motorcycle opened fire on Maulvi Fayyaz when he was standing in front of his office,” Salim said. Fayyaz was a top Islamic leader in restive Kandahar province, a former stronghold of the ousted Taleban regime. He was known as a close supporter of President Hamid Karzai.
A spokesman for the hard-line Taleban, Mulla Abdul Latif Hakimi, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call from an unknown location. “Today at 2:00 in the afternoon Taleban shot and killed Mulla Fayyaz in Kandahar city,” Hakimi told AFP. “He was preaching against the Taleban under the name of Islam and deserved to die.”
Police did not immediately blame anyone for the attack and said they had launched an investigation. “The investigation is going on and we don’t know now who was behind the attack,” said Salim.
Meanwhile, a videotape of an Italian aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan nearly two weeks ago was broadcast by an Afghan television station yesterday. Wearing a headscarf and wrapped in a brown shawl, a tense-looking Clementina Cantoni, 32, was shown flanked by two men pointing assault rifles at her in the tape broadcast by private Tolo TV.
She was asked to name some close family members by a man who was not seen on the tape. She looked pale and did not make an appeal for her freedom. It was not clear exactly when the video was taken. Asked by the unseen man to give the date, Cantoni said hesitantly: “Today is May 28, Sunday.” The men pointing rifles at her had scarves across their faces and ammunition pouches on their chests. Tolo did not say how it got the tape.
In another development, nearly 3,000 Afghans have registered to stand in a historic Sept. 18 parliamentary election, the country’s election commission said. More than 3,000 people have signed up to stand in elections for provincial councils, to be held on the same day as the general election.
