KABUL, Feb 26: Two US advisers who were shot dead in the Afghan interior ministry by an Afghan colleague had been mocking anti-American protests over the burning of the copies of holy Quran, a government source said on Sunday.

“The advisers were scolding the protesters and calling them bad names,” as they watched videos of demonstrations in Kabul, the source said.

“They called the Quran a bad book in the presence of the guy. After all this the guy had verbal arguments with the advisers and was threatened by them.

He gets angry and shoots them. Eight rounds were fired at them.

“He then sneaks out and disappears. No one knew about the incident for more than an hour because the room is soundproofed,” he said, adding that CCTV cameras had been viewed in the investigation of the shooting.

Asked about this description of events in the ministry on Saturday, a spokesman for Nato’s US-led International Security Assistance Force said: “The investigation is ongoing.”Government sources said police were hunting for an Afghan intelligence official suspected of killing the two Americans, while the interior ministry confirmed that “the suspect is one of the employees of the ministry and he is at large”.

Local television quoted a source which named the suspect as 25-year-old Abdul Saboor, who had studied in Pakistan and joined the ministry as a driver in 2007 before being promoted.—AFP

Dawn