Former Afghan Governor Killed

(RFE/RL) KABUL, May 22, 2006 (RFE/RL) --The chief of police in Afghanistan's Ghazni Province says a key ally of Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- the former governor of Paktika Province -- has been killed.

Police Chief Abdul Rahman Sarjang said Mohammad Ali Jalali's body was recovered today from a desert area in Ghazni Province.

Jalali and four others were abducted from a car on May 21 after attending a funeral service in the town of Chahar Diwar in Ghazni.

Sarjang said the other abductees were released alive.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yosuf Ahmadi, says Taliban fighters killed the former governor.

Jalali was a respected tribal leader in Paktika, a volatile province that borders Pakistan. He was also the first governor that Karzai appointed in the province after the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.