Pakistan condemns Karzai brother's killing

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai inspecting the Guard of Honour at the Presidential Palace in Kabul. PHOTO: APP/FILE

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan condemned the killing on Tuesday of Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s younger brother as “an act of cowardice”.

Although relations between the neighbours have been strained by accusations over cross-border attacks in recent weeks, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani telephoned Karzai to express his condolences.

Gilani’s office said he expressed “shock and grief” over Ahmed Wali Karzai’s assassination.

The younger Karzai, who was long accused of involvement in corruption and Afghanistan’s drugs trade, was a key ally of the president and US-led Nato forces in the south of the country, the headquarters of a Taliban insurgency.

Pakistan was a key ally of the Afghan Taliban regime until siding with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks and ultimately implanted Karzai in power.