Haji Abdul Qadeer (; – 6 July 2002) was a prominent Northern Alliance leader in Afghanistan and opposed the Taliban. Originally a commander of the Hezb-i Islami Khalis faction during the Soviet–Afghan War, he then served as governor of Nangarhar Province, the head of the Eastern Afghanistan Shura, and later Vice President of Afghanistan and Minister of Public Works in the administration of Hamid Karzai from 19 June 2002 until his assassination on 6 July 2002. He was the older brother of fellow anti-Soviet and Northern Alliance commander Abdul Haq, who was executed in late 2001 by the Taliban. Abdul Qadeer is notable for welcoming Osama bin Laden to Jalalabad in 1996. Biography Abdul Qadeer belonged to the influential Pashtun Arsala family from Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. He was involved in Afghan politics even before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, Qadeer fought against them as a key resistance commander with the Hezb-e Islami Khalis faction. After the Soviet retreat in 1989 and the fall of the Afghan communist regime in 1992, Qadeer was appointed governor of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. In that capacity, he welcomed Osama bin Laden to Jalalabad in 1996. On 27 September 1996, the Taliban took power in Kabul with military support by Pakistan and financial support by Saudi Arabia. Qadeer had to flee from Nangarhar and entered neighbouring Pakistan. Because of his opposition to the Taliban (unlike Yunus Khalis), however, he soon faced trouble with the authorities in Pakistan. Qadir then left for Germany. In the following years he shuttled between Germany and Dubai where he had started a trading business. In 1999, Qadeer returned to Afghanistan and joined the Northern Alliance (United Front), which was the only resistance force left against the Taliban regime and its allies. The United Front included forces and leaders from different political backgrounds as well as from all Afghan ethnicities including Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras or Turkmens. Qadeer came to lead the United Front's Eastern Shura and ensured the alliance's influence in the largely Pashtun east of Afghanistan. From the Taliban conquest in 1996 until November 2001 the United Front controlled roughly 30% of Afghanistan's population in provinces such as Badakhshan, Kapisa, Takhar and parts of Parwan, Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman, Samangan, Kunduz, Ghōr and Bamyan. Ahmad Shah Massoud did not intend for the United Front to become the ruling government of Afghanistan.