Hamid Karzai calls for peace after attack kills official. His emotional display is apparently prompted by the assassination of a deputy governor in Ghazni province. President Hamid Karzai broke into tears Tuesday while delivering a speech in which he questioned the efficacy of the NATO military mission in Afghanistan and condemning an epidemic of violence gripping his country.
The deputy governor of the southeastern province of Ghazni, Khazim Allayar, was killed along with his son, a nephew and a bodyguard in the provincial capital Tuesday morning when a suicide bomber rammed a rickshaw into the group's vehicle, according to provincial spokesman Ismail Jahangir.
Speaking at an event in Kabul to promote literacy programs, Karzai addressed Taliban members as "my countrymen" and pleaded with them to refrain from "destroying your own homeland for the benefit of others."
On Tuesday afternoon, Karzai's spokesman released a list of 70 Afghans who will sit on a council tasked with implementing the president's plan to get the Taliban and other militants to join the political process.
During his speech, Karzai accused NATO members and other countries of using Afghanistan as a battleground to settle scores. "It has been about 10 years," the president said, referring to the U.S.-led war. "The result remains unclear."
He lamented the state of insecurity in the country in uncharacteristically personal terms, noting that children and teachers are afraid to go to school because of the violence that plagues several provinces and saying he fears that young Afghans might abandon their country.
