Taliban - Afghan opposition figure Abdul Haq killed in shootout

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan opposition figure Abdul Haq was killed in a shootout with Taliban soldiers, the Taliban's Bakhtar news agency reported Friday. Haq's family expressed skepticism over the report.

Earlier, Taliban officials told the Afghan Islamic Press agency that Haq was captured early Friday about 20 miles south of Kabul. His family said in Pakistan that he had been apprehended on a peace mission.

However, the Bakhtar agency later reported that Haq was killed. According to the agency, Haq tried to escape and he and "two or three others" were killed in a hail of bullets.

In Peshawar, Pakistan, Haq's nephew, Mohammed Yousuf, said "Bakhtar news agency is lying. Know that he is alive."

Asked how he knew his uncle was alive, he replied: "We don't have any source, but we know that he's alive." He refused to give details.

The nephew said Haq went to Afghanistan six days ago along with six or seven people, most of them his relatives.

Haq, a guerrilla leader in the war against the Soviets, slipped into Afghanistan with peace proposals on behalf of former king Mohammad Zaher Shah, an aide to the former monarch said in Rome.

The king's son-in-law, Gen. Abdul Wali, said in Rome that he had heard the Taliban report but could not confirm it.

"It's a pity, he was a very good man, a courageous man and a patriot," he said. "I feel very sorry, I hope we'll get news he is still alive."

He stressed Haq was in Afghanistan on a peace mission. "He was there to bring peace to Afghanistan," he said.

If the report about Haq's death is confirmed, he would be the second key opposition figure killed in two months. Northern alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massood was killed in a Sept. 9 suicide bombing.

On Jan. 12, 1999, two masked men scaled a wall at Haq's home in Peshawar, Pakistan, and killed his wife, their 11-year-old son and the family bodyguard. Haq was away at the time.

No one claimed responsibility for the slayings. But many Afghan exiles and Amnesty International say prominent Afghan exiles and their families were targeted by the Taliban. The Taliban said their fighters did not operate outside Afghan territory.