KABUL, Afghanistan, July 6 — Two gunmen firing assault rifles assassinated Abdul Qadir, one of Afghanistan’s three vice presidents, as he was being driven from a government ministry Saturday. His driver was also killed but the gunmen escaped.

THE ATTACK took place in the middle of the afternoon as Qadir was leaving by car from the Ministry of Public Works, which he also headed, according to Interior Minister Taj Mohammed Wardak.
The gunmen, who had been hiding in the bushes, escaped in a car which sped up moments after the shooting, police official Abdul Raouf Dad said.
After the bursts of gunfire, the Qadir vehicle went out of control and smashed into a brick wall. All 10 uniformed security guards who were on duty at the ministry were arrested because they failed to react properly, according to Kabul police chief Din Mohammed Jurat.
“The motive for the killing isn’t immediately clear,” Basir Salangi, of the Kabul police department, told reporters.
Qadir, a tall and imposing man with a trim white beard, was appointed one of three vice presidents during last month’s Afghan grand council, or loya jirga. He also served as governor of eastern Nangarhar province and played a leading role in last year’s ouster of the Taliban.
In Kennebunkport, Maine, where he was spending the holiday weekend, President Bush condemned Qadir’s assassination.
“My administration and our country mourns the loss of a man who desired freedom and stability for the country he loved,” Bush told reporters.
Asked if terrorists were responsible, he replied: “Could be that, could be drug lords, could be long time rivals. All we know is a good man is dead and we mourn his loss.”

FAMILY IN SHOCK
“Our family is in shock,” said Qadir’s younger brother, Nasarullah Baryalai. “Our family has given so many sacrifices for Afghanistan. We can’t even think now who is behind this.”
Abdul Qadir in April, 2002
Baryalai said Afghan President Hamid Karzai has already called to express his sympathy and to promise a full investigation
“He has assured us of a thorough investigation,” he said. “We expect that the real killers will be found and punished.”
Karzai, who went to the 400-bed Military Hospital where Qadir’s body was taken, also called an emergency meeting of his Cabinet. The interior ministry moved quickly to set up checkpoints throughout the capital searching vehicles for the killers who fled in a white car.
The security of ministers and government facilities was among the primary missions of the international peacekeeping force, sent to Kabul last December when the first interim administration took office.
The peacekeeping command refused to comment before it receives an official statement from the government.
“This is a terrorist attack,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad said. “But it won’t stop us from making this country a safer place. The killers have to be found.”

KEY RESISTANCE FIGURE
Qadir was the brother of legendary rebel commander Abdul Haq, who was captured and hanged by the Taliban last year after slipping into the country to organize resistance to the Islamic militia.
“We have lost two brothers,” said Qadir’s younger brother. “Afghanistan has lost two very important figures in just one year.”
Qadir was one of the Pashtuns appointed to the Cabinet of President Hamid Karzai in an attempt to provide ethnic balance after complaints from Pashtuns that they were being sidelined in favor of Tajiks from the former Northern Alliance which fought the Taliban.
“If this government falls then you go back to civil war, the north against the south,” historian Martin McCauley told Sky TV. “The Pashtuns, who dominated the Taliban, they will then push for power in north Afghanistan and the Tajiks and the Uzbeks and the other nationalities in the north will in fact resist that and you have a recipe for disaster.”
During the 1980s Soviet invasion, Qadir was a key commander with Hezb-e-Islami, an anti-Soviet faction led by conservative Islamic cleric Yunus Khalis.
It was the second Cabinet minister assassinated since the Taliban collapsed last year.
On Feb. 14, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Abdul Rahman was killed at Kabul airport under mysterious circumstances. Rahman was initially reported killed by a mob of Muslim pilgrims angered that they had been unable to travel to Mecca.
Later, Karzai blamed Rahman’s killing on a conspiracy involving members of his own police and intelligence services and said it sprang from a personal vendetta. However, no one has ever been charged with the death and some of those publicly named remain in power.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.