Inquiry after Afghan mob kills minister

Many pilgrims are still waiting for flights to Mecca

Afghanistan's interim administration has ordered an immediate investigation into the murder of Civil Aviation Minister Abdul Rahman, at Kabul airport.

A crowd of pilgrims, who had been waiting for two days to set off for the traditional Muslim Hajj, beat the minister to death on Thursday after rumours that he had cancelled a flight to Saudi Arabia.

Afghan leader Hamid Karzai deplored Mr Rahman's tragic death and said he had appointed a commission to investigate its "mysterious circumstances."

Rahman had hoped to make Afghanistan a tourist destination

Ahead of a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in Kabul, Mr Karzai said that "last night's incident proves the point" that more security is needed in Afghanistan.

The interim administration, which took office in December, held an emergency session late on Thursday at the presidential palace to discuss the attack.

Foreign ministry spokesman Omar Samad said some pilgrims had been arrested.

"We're looking into the criminal actions that have taken place here," he said.

Kabul airport was sealed off on Friday morning and police were stationed along the roads leading to it.

'Failed intervention'

The attack shows the weakness of the fledgling Kabul police force in charge of the civil aviation side of the airport where it took place, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Kabul.

He says the minister's bodyguards were unable to save him from the mob who had surrounded him and his plane.

Extra troops were sent to the airport after the incident

International peacekeepers "knew there was an ongoing incident, but it happened very quickly," British Captain Graham Dunlop, a spokesman for the security force told the Associated Press.

"We were not involved," he said. "It's not our jurisdiction."

Difficult conditions

The pilgrims had waited for two days in freezing temperatures to board flights to the holy city of Mecca, and there were reports that two women had frozen to death.

Tempers appear to have flared after two planes that were due to pick up the pilgrims were delayed.

Some pilgrims had been waiting for two days

A pilgrim named Mirza said they had paid $1,500 for the promised flights, a fortune for ordinary Afghans.

"Four people went inside the plane and dragged him out and killed him on the spot," Mirza was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.

Some 10 employees of Afghanistan's Ariana Airlines, including the company's president, were also injured, witnesses said.

Despite the incident, two flights carrying pilgrims took off from Kabul at 0200 on Friday (2130 GMT on Thursday) and another was to depart later on Friday, airport officials told AP on condition of anonymity.

'Rumours'

Reports suggest that the some of the pilgrims were enraged when a rumour spread that Mr Rahman was about to divert their plane to take his family to India.

For many Muslims the opportunity to go to Mecca to perform the Hajj is a highpoint in their life. Many of the pilgrims gathered at Kabul airport may have spent their life savings to finance their pilgrimage.

All able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the Hajj once in their life.

The French news agency AFP says that early on Friday, despite a curfew in the rest of Kabul, dozens of pilgrims were still at the airport waving their tickets in their hands trying to talk to officials.

As word of Rahman's death spread, friends, family and government officials gathered at his home in Kabul, where a mullah read verses from the Koran.

The 49-year-old minister was a trained doctor. He had fled Afghanistan to Delhi when the Taleban took over.