PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- The brother-in-law of Afghanistan's slain president Najibullah was shot and killed Monday outside his home in northwest Pakistan.

Mohammed Hashim Bakhtiari was returning to his home in a posh suburb of Peshawar when assailants opened fire with automatic rifles, police said.

Photo of Najibullah, President of Afghanistan, hanging in Kabul on September 27, 1996

No one took responsibility for the killing.

Peshawar is surrounded by Afghan refugee camps, where more than 1 million displaced Afghans still live. Many among the refugees profess allegiance to Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban army, who reviled Najibullah as a communist.

Invading Taliban soldiers dragged Najibullah from his refuge in a United Nations compound in the heart of the beleaguered Afghan capital Kabul in September 1996. Throughout the night they tortured Najibullah and his brother, then they hanged their bloated bodies outside the presidential palace for two days.

The Taliban profess a strict Islamic belief that bans women from working, bars girls from school and forces men to wear beards.

Najibullah was appointed president in 1985 and oversaw the withdrawal of invading Soviet soldiers from Afghanistan in 1989. He continued to rule until 1992 when he agreed to step down. But before he could leave Kabul, Muslim insurgents overran the city and refused to allow him to leave.

For four years the United Nations gave Najibullah refuge in a compound while Muslim insurgents, once backed by the United States, turned their weapons on each other, destroyed vast tracts of the capital and killed 50,000 people.

The Taliban threw out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and his military chief Ahmed Shah Massood in September 1996 and imposed their brand of Islamic law.

Bakhtiari, who was married to Najibullah's sister, had held memorials to his slain brother-in-law in Peshawar and had condemned the Taliban for his killing.

Police were investigating the shooting of Bakhtiari.

For a photo of an Afghan Jail, see: The Central Jail in Kabul .

For another view of the same jail, see: Leaving the Central Jail in Kabul .

For the History of the War in Afghanistan, see: A Brief History of the War In Afghanistan.

For a photo of one of my fellow prisoners from an Afghan jail, see: Syed Durali Shah Naqwi .

Here is: Islamic rebels take Afghan capital - Taliban militia proclaims strict Muslim state, executes ex-leader

Here are links:

• Charles Edward Roberts - Wanted for Kidnapping a Young Afghan/Pakistani Muslim Tribal Girl
• Afghan President Najibullah hangs in Kabul
• Attack on Afghan bases leaves 28 dead - Arabs, Pakistanis among victims
• Osama Bin Ladin survived Missile Attack because he postponed at the last minute a planned trip to the Camp
• Pakistan orders evacuation of foreigners from Chitral
• Thousands Protest in Kandahar, Afghanistan
• Transcript of Osama Bin Ladin interview by Peter Arnett
• Saddam Hussein is a Happy Man Because of the Help from his Friend Ken Starr
• Senator Dan Coats - A Real Bastard - Let's Go Get This Guy
• Senator Arlen Specter - A Real Creep - Let's Get Rid of this Guy
• Benazir Bhutto defends US attack
• Osama bin Laden
• The News (Pakistan)
• Pakistan Dawn (in English)
• The Nation, Lahore, Pakistan (in English)
• Frontier Post, Peshawar Pakistan (in English)
• A Brief History of the War In Afghanistan
• How I escaped from jail in Afghanistan
• The Central Jail in Kabul
• Has Anybody Seen This Girl?
• History of the War in Afghanistan
• Syed Durali Shah
• New York Post: GOP CRITICS RALLY 'ROUND PREZ -- BUT GET IN THEIR SHOTS, TOO
• Memo of Conversation with FBI Agent John P. Butler
• The Slave Children of Thomas Jefferson