Hunt begins for Afghan assassins

Mourners carry the flag-draped coffins of Qadir and his son-in-law toward a mosque on Sunday in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has set up a five-member delegation to investigate the assassination of one of the country's three vice presidents.

Haji Abdul Qadir was gunned down Saturday while being driven away from the gates of a government ministry building in the capital, Kabul. His driver, who was his son-in-law, also was killed.

In accordance with Muslim tradition that the dead be buried within 24 hours, Abdul Qadir's body was flown Sunday to his hometown of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan. He was buried beside the grave of his brother, rebel leader Abdul Haq, who was assassinated in October when he slipped into Afghanistan to drum up resistance to the fundamentalist Taliban regime.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO The assassination of Haji Abdul Qadir, one of three Afghan vice presidents, has raised concerns of instability. (July 6) Play video   EXTRA INFORMATION Profile: Afghanistan's 'most important' Pashtun  Gallery: Qadir assassination    RESOURCES On the Scene: CNN's Nic Robertson in Kabul     CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

Qadir was governor of the Nangarhar province. Its capital, Jalalabad, was the center of his power base before the Taliban came to power.

Thousands of mourners gathered Sunday in Kabul for Abdul Qadir's funeral, which was held amid tight security at the city's main mosque.

Karzai and former President Burhanuddin Rabbani were among those paying respects to Abdul Qadir, whose coffin was covered in a black velvet shroud and adorned with flowers.

Abdul Qadir, a member of Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, the Pashtun, also was public works minister in Afghanistan's transitional government. He helped fight the Taliban as a former Northern Alliance commander in eastern Afghanistan. (Profile)

Qadir is the second Afghan Cabinet minister to be killed this year: In February, Abdul Brahman, Afghan minister of civil aviation and tourism, was assassinated at the Kabul airport. (Full story)

Killing a 'cowardly act'

No group has claimed responsibility for Qadir's killing, but the Afghan government has labeled the attack a terrorist act.

"Whoever is behind this cowardly act is considered by the government first of all as a terrorist," Afghan government spokesman Omar Samad said. "They are not going to deter us from the path that we have started toward, bringing peace and stability to the country."

The United States has offered the Afghan government help to track down those responsible for the attack. President Bush said his administration mourned the loss of Abdul Qadir, a man who fought for freedom and security, but said it was too soon to know who was behind the killing.

"It could be drug lords. It could be rivals. Who knows? All we know is that a good man is dead, and we mourn his loss," Bush said.

Questions about security

Haji Abdul Qadir, pictured in November, was assassinated Saturday in Kabul. No one has claimed responsibility for the killing of the Afghan vice president.

U.S. congressional leaders said Sunday that the United States may need to reconsider American forces in security roles in Afghanistan in light of Abdul Qadir's assassination.

"This points out how fragile this situation is," said U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "If we're going to win, and by win I mean to stabilize the area, we are going to have to take a look at ... more American involvement."

Hagel said that it "would be a huge defeat for us symbolically" if such incidents destabilize the Afghan government.

U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the assassination "a throwback to the old Afghanistan and a setback to the establishment of the new Afghanistan."

"It may indicate that we're going to have to be more active in some of the security aspects," Graham said.

Turkey heads the international security force in charge of maintaining law and order in Afghanistan. American troops are not actively involved in security.

Graham criticized the U.S. track record in carrying out "situations in which the U.S. military has been committed."

"We haven't had equal success in following up with those forces that could provide essential law and order," Graham said. "We need to spend more effort in finding out how to spend the final chapters in our involvement."

Hagel and Graham were guests on NBC's "Meet the Press."