KABUL, August 3, 2008 (AFP) - A senior finance ministry official who was working to reclaim state properties grabbed by strongmen during Afghanistan's civil war was shot dead in his home in Kabul, the government said Sunday.

Abdullah Taraki, head of the government properties department in the Ministry of Finance, was shot and killed by unknown gunmen who broke into his house late Saturday, ministry spokesman Aziz Shams told AFP.

'Mr Taraki was trying to reclaim ministry properties which were grabbed by people in the past. He was very successful in the job and had returned several key properties from the individuals,' he said.

Shams said scores of land and other properties had been seized by 'strongmen' during Afghanistan's 1992 and 1996 civil war.

Anti-Taliban warlords and powerful commanders, also accused of committing crimes against humanity during the conflict, are said to have grabbed government properties during the country's decades of conflicts.

The interior ministry said Taraki died on the way to the hospital.

'This is a criminal case and police are investigating,' spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.

Rights groups complain of impunity in Afghanistan after the 2001 ouster of the Taliban, with former militia commanders who have been accused of atrocities holding senior government posts and powerful men illegally appropriating land.