[1] He was murdered in what appeared to be a mob attack on his plane at Kabul International Airport by pilgrims angry that they had been unable to travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
[1] Witnesses and officials said pilgrims beat the minister to death and tossed his body to the tarmac.
However, President Hamid Karzai accused six senior government officials of the murder, saying that they were motivated by a long-standing feud.
Karzai said five ministers, including the head of the intelligence ministry, General Abdullah Tawhedi; the technical deputy of the Ministry of Defense, General Qalander Beg, and a Supreme Court justice, Haji Halim and 15 other suspects had been linked to the assassination.
The news for his death in Japanese was later misunderstood as "Afghan air sumo wrestling killed", instead of "Afghan aviation minister beaten to death", which later became an internet meme on 2channel.