A former Afghan governor and key ally of President Hamid Karzai's has been found dead in eastern Afghanistan a day after being kidnapped, police said. Mohammad Ali Jalali's body was recovered Monday from a deserted area in Ghazni province, the police chief of the neighboring Paktika province said.
Jalali and four others had been abducted from a car Sunday after attending a funeral in Ghazni. The other abductees were released, Radio Free Afghanistan reported.
A Taliban spokesman claimed that the rebels were responsible for the killing.
Jalali was a respected tribal leader in Paktika, a volatile province bordering Pakistan. He was the first governor that Karzai appointed in Paktika after the demise of the Taliban regime in late 2001.