Unknown assailants shot dead former Taliban commander Mohammad Karim Qarabaghi in the Afghan capital city on Friday, police said.

"Unidentified armed men sprayed several bullets on Karim Qarabagh and his nephew at 11th district of Kabul killing both on the spot," senior police official Shah Wali Tamana told Xinhua.

He did not give more details by saying, "Investigation is underway."

However, eyewitnesses at the site of the bloody incident said that the attackers riding three tinted glasses Land Cruisers committed the offence and managed their good escape in front of police.

"The assailants, looking influential men openly fired several bullets on Karim and his nephew at 5:10 pm today and fled away," Fazal Haq, 23 a passerby at the site, told Xinhua.

Qarabaghi, a former commander of ousted Taliban regime in Shamali plain north of the Afghan capital had used to stay in Kabul city since the collapse of Taliban reign in late 2001.

It is the second time that unknown armed men in the Afghan capital have killed former Taliban commanders in the broad day light.

Qarabaghi's killing is taking place amid the ongoing government-initiated national reconciliation policy and offering amnesty to low and medium grad Taliban operatives.

Earlier, Shir Agha Salangi, another prominent Taliban's former associate, was murdered in 2003 while the assailants have yet to be made public.

Source: Xinhua