Afghan President Hamid Karzai looks down at the grave of his brother Ahmed Wali Karzai during the burial ceremony in Kandahar province on July 13, 2011.
He had a fleet of bullet-proof Land Cruisers, dozens of bodyguards, police checkpoints surrounding his home, good relations with the Central Intelligence Agency and a brother who is president.
But none of those saved Ahmed Wali Karzai, the godfather's godfather in southern Afghanistan.
The controversial powerbroker, the younger half-brother of President Hamid Karzai, was buried Wednesday in the family's ancestral village of Karz, 20 kilometres outside of Kandahar city, a day after he was shot in his home by a long-time employee.
President Karzai led the funeral procession, attended by thousands and surrounded by a thick security cordon of troops, and wept as he kissed his brother's corpse.
The assassination of the younger Mr. Karzai has left Kandahar apprehensive about the dangers of a power struggle among the president's family and rival tribes. It also removed the kingpin of one of the country's most volatile regions, a place where the Taliban, poppy traders, feuding tribes, a feeble Afghan government and some 30,000 foreign troops all wrestle for dominance.
"It leaves a power vacuum for everyone - for the Americans and their exit strategy, for President Karzai because Ahmed Wali was running the south for him, and in a sense for the Taliban," said Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani author and leading expert on Afghanistan's murky politics and endless wars.
Mr. Karzai was at once feared, resented and appreciated as a key backroom operator in Kandahar province where, until this month's pullout, Canadian troops had been fighting since 2006 against Taliban insurgents.
He navigated a minefield of competing and violent interests. He was an intermediary in talks with the Taliban. He was also cooperating with the American-led coalition that is fighting the Taliban and hopes to leave by the end of 2014.
"He had a finger in all the pies, including the Taliban itself," said Mr. Rashid. "Nobody else has that kind of reach."
For Hamid Karzai, the loss is a blow that could push him further into isolation and mistrust. Just last month, a group of men from Kandahar went to Kabul to plead with the President to appoint his brother governor.
"He was controlling Kandahar," said Khalid Pashtoon, a member of parliament who was part of the delegation. "He had the power but not the responsibility. But the President said, 'No, I love him too much. I would be worried. I don't want to put him in danger or confrontation with the people.' "
A Taliban spokesman claimed the insurgent group had plotted and carried out the murder, calling the shooting its biggest achievement of the past decade. But the Taliban often exaggerates its role or takes credit for high-profile attacks it did not carry out. The claim could not be substantiated and Afghan security officials said they could not rule out that the shooting stemmed from a personal grievance.
Mr. Karzai had been the target of at least four assassination attempts in the last few years by insurgents who attacked him with bombs, guns and missiles.
He had been a lightning rod for criticism, accused at various times of profiting from the lucrative drug trade, strong-arming competitors and demanding cuts from any contract signed with the NATO forces at the huge airbase just outside Kandahar city.
He always denied he was a criminal or, as was alleged in the media two years ago, on the payroll of the CIA.
Still, more than a whiff of the unsavoury clung to him. American officials for years complained about him to President Karzai, deriding him as dangerously and embarrassingly corrupt.
The complaints stopped in the past year, according to several diplomats in Kabul, because the younger Mr. Karzai's influence came to be seen as a useful asset in maintaining a brittle sort of stability in Kandahar.
Canadian Ambassador William Crosbie, for example, was quoted in a leaked American diplomatic cable as once complaining that Ahmed Wali Karzai personified a presidential system of patronage and corruption that made his "blood boil."
Asked last week if he had ever done any more than complain to his diplomatic colleagues, Mr. Crosbie said he was only "a guest" in Afghanistan and could only suggest that an "inappropriate choice" had been made.
"Generally, with respect to Ahmed Wali Karzai and this province, the reality is that you have to deal with the situation you have in Kandahar," Mr. Crosbie said. "It's a very complex province."
Unlike the many petty and inexplicably wealthy wheeler-dealers who appeared on the scene in Kandahar in the past 10 years, Mr. Karzai was seen by many people in the city as someone who may have taken but who also gave back.
"For me personally, he was not the worst of the evils that Kandahar had," said Rangina Hamidi, a prominent women's activist whose father is the city's mayor. "I'm not saying he was perfect, but he was a decision maker. He made a decision, right on the spot, and made people happy or angry."
Mr. Karzai, a burly, balding man who bore little resemblance to his dapper older brother, officially held only the title of provincial council chief. Local tribal leaders and small-town politicians had awarded him the job by acclamation.
But that was just window-dressing. Mr. Karzai was the go-to man for any business deal, argument or intercession with the government in Kabul. It made him a parallel, and ultimately more important, centre of power that local elected officials and the appointed provincial governor.
His influence reached beyond Kandahar and into the largely Pashtun provinces nearby. His tribal affiliation, his personal access to foreign military commanders and his direct line to the President gave him the status of a feudal lord.
"He was always finding solutions for the people of Uruzgan," said Khodai Rahim, the deputy governor of the province directly north of Kandahar. "Whenever our people had problems, they went to Ahmed Wali Karzai."
Finding a replacement powerbroker will require some skillful juggling.
One possibility is that President Karzai could replace the provincial governor, Tooryalai Wesa, with a strongman who combines good local tribal connections with a willingness to enforce his will with a private militia.
One name that came up repeatedly after the assassination was that of Gul Agha Sherzai, a native of Kandahar and its former provincial governor, who has also been linked for years to the narcotics business. He is now governor of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, where Taliban and other insurgent violence has risen sharply in the past year.
Three other Karzai brothers, who wielded their own kind of power in the shadow of their younger sibling, could also be tapped, if for no other reason than to unwind or maintain the slain Mr. Karzai's labyrinth of business interests.
Who's next in line of succession?
Three other Karzai brothers have deep influence and interests in Kandahar. They could be positioned to carry on as the family powerbrokers.
Abdul Qayum Karzai, who lived for more than 30 years in the United States, is a former member of parliament from Kandahar who was known for spending almost all his time in the city and rarely showing up for sessions. He gave up his seat in 2008 and now reportedly acts as a paid intermediary for provincial landowners who need approvals from the central government for their business deals. He travels frequently to Saudi Arabia as part of President Karzai's attempt to lure Taliban leaders into political negotiations to end the insurgency.
Shahwali Karzai was a close companion to Ahmed Wali Karzai, often accompanying him on trips to visit with tribal elders and sitting at his side in meetings with supplicants seeking favours and help with their disputes. He is active in Karzai family real-estate developments in Kandahar.
Mahmood Karzai, like his brother Abdul Qayum, has deep roots in the United States and developed close relations with American politicians. A founder of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce, he acquired government-owned land on the outskirts of Kandahar at fire-sale prices and is building a suburban-style development popular with the city's new stratum of wealthy and middle-class families. He travels frequently, lives part-time in Dubai and has a cloud over his head due to his involvement with the bankrupt Kabul Bank, which made hundreds of millions of dollars worth of poorly secured loans to a raft of politically well-connected Afghans - including himself.