Afghan injured in blast dies

Karzai was injured in Kandahar attack that killed Emiratis

KABUL // An Afghan businessman died yesterday from injuries suffered in the Kandahar bomb attack that killed five Emiratis.

Hashim Karzai, cousin of former president Hamid Karzai, died in hospital in India, where he had been sent for treatment after slipping into a coma, his brother Haji Karzai said. He was injured when explosives placed under a sofa went off as the Kandahar governor was entertaining a UAE delegation at his guesthouse last Tuesday.

Eleven others were killed in the blast. The UAE Ambassador to Afghanistan, Juma Al Kaabi, was injured in the attack and flown back to Abu Dhabi aboard a military plane on Thursday to receive further treatment. The governor of Kandahar, Homayun Azizi, was also injured. Hashim Karzai, 58, was the head of a construction company building a town in Kandahar and had donated land for the UAE- funded Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan orphanage for which the Ambassador laid the foundation stone on the day of the bombing.

He is survived by his wife and three children.

His funeral will take place in the United States, where he was living before going to work on the Kandahar project, said his brother, who lives in Kandahar. The Afghan government blamed the Taliban for the attack.

But the group denied any involvement despite admitting to attacks in Helmand and Kabul on the same day that left dozens dead.