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Fears are receding in Kabul that the country is headed for a meltdown following the murder of Vice-President and Minister of Public Works Haji Abdul Qadir (48).
Armed soldiers have been withdrawn from intersections and the Afghan capital is now as calm as it was before the assassination.
Qadir, a Pashtoon and father of 12 children, was shot dead by two gunmen as he was driving into his office compound.
Ten suspects have been taken into custody, but government investigators are yet to charge anyone.
On the other hand, a darker side of Qadir's personality has started to emerge after Sunday morning's eulogies at the prayer service in his memory at the Idgah mosque.
Fellow Pashtoons told rediff.com of how Qadir started out as a lorry driver, but ended up as one of the richest men in Afghanistan.
They also said that he sanctioned the honour killing of his own daughter, who was beheaded following her decision to elope with a second cousin.
The daughter's in laws took revenge by ordering the murder of another woman from Qadir's immediate family. The unfortunate victim was the wife of Qadir's younger brother, Abdul Haq, who was himself captured and killed by the Taliban last summer.
"It was because of these kinds of feuds that Qadir was murdered," one insider claimed. "Please don't make angels out of our thugs."
At the funeral service one young mourner, Mahmoud, said, "Yes, we [came to] know about the girl's death after she fell in love with a boy. But she was killed by her own brother, not by Haji Qadir."
Senior defence ministry officials, who were present at the funeral service, agreed that the murder was probably motivated by personal considerations. "This is a personal problem. I don't think it will ever be solved," he said.
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