Seven People Killed in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Seven people were killed in eastern Afghanistan after they met with the commission that is selecting participants for an upcoming tribal assembly -- an indication of the instability many fear will accompany the traditional loya jirga.

The seven, all prominent residents of the Pashat area of eastern Kunar province, traveled to Jalalabad last week and met with commission members to discuss strategy in convening the assembly, now scheduled for June.

They were shot and killed by unknown gunmen late Friday in the Kunar provincial capital of Asadabad, near the Pakistani border, at the home of someone they were staying with, said Aziz Ullah Salik, the nephew of one of the victims.

He said the slayings were "political" in nature and that the seven had been singled out.

The 21-member commission has been charged with organizing the loya jirga, which is to chose a transitional government to rule Afghanistan for 18 months in the run-up to elections. It must convene before the interim government's six-month term expires.

Commission members have been meeting with various local leaders and tribal chiefs to discuss details of the assembly and to select the ethnic, religious and regional representatives who will participate.

A U.N. conference in Germany last year endorsed convening the loya jirga to select the transitional government. However, some fear the gathering could become a lightning rod for Afghanistan's many tribal and regional rivalries.

There have been reports from eastern Afghanistan that resentment is mounting among Pashtuns who want greater representation. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group.

And at least one influential figure openly opposes the loya jirga -- former prime minister Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, chief of the Hezb-e-Islami party. Hekmatyar had been living in exile in Iran, although Tehran authorities last month closed his offices and ordered him out.

The loya jirga itself is expected to be convened by Afghanistan's exiled monarch, Mohammad Zaher Shah. The last jirga he convened was in the 1960s, and many Afghans regard it as the last legitimate one, despite attempts in the 1980s and 1990s.