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This is the brutal lynching and public display of the close confidante who shot dead Ahmed Wali Karzai - the half-brother of president Hamid Karzai. A group of men in plain clothes hung the corpse against the wall in Kandahar for around 20 minutes before they carried it away. Ahmed Wali Karzai was assassinated on Tuesday by the man who is said to have been from his own tribe and home town, whom he had travelled with and worked alongside for seven years. President Karzai was joined by thousands of mourners at the funeral of his half brother. The president, tribal leaders, government officials and others attended first a morning prayer service in the provincial capital, Kandahar, before travelling to the family's ancestral home village of Karz for the funeral.A sea of mourners surged toward the grave as a large wooden coffin, adorned with red flowers was brought forward. Helicopters circled overhead as the coffin was lowered into the earth. Mr Karzai - surrounded by a ring of security men - was on the fringe of the throng of mourners, tears streaming down his cheeks. The president approached the grave, climbed into it and had to be pulled out by his shoulders as his grief got the better of him.Shortly after the funeral in Karz, Mr Karzai held a press conference in the provincial capital. He said: 'My message for them (the Taliban) is that my countrymen, my brothers, should stop killing their own people. 'It is easy to kill and everyone can do it, but the real man is the one who can save people's lives.' Meanwhile, a suicide attack was reported at a mosque in Kandahar during a memorial service for Wali Karzai. The explosion killed the head of the provincial religious council and at least three others, the Interior Ministry and the Kandahar provincial government's media office said. 'Bomb blast killed chief of Kandahar Ulema Council and wounded 11 more in the mosque where people were praying for AWK,' the media office said on Twitter, referring to Ahmad Wali Karzai. Afghan television channel, Tolo TV, reported a second explosion near the mosque, but gave no further details. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for Wali Karzai's killing, but Afghan officials have said it is unclear whether he was shot by insurgents or died as a result of an internal dispute. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that insurgent fighters killed Wali Karzai because he cooperated with British, U.S. and Canadian forces in the south. He said: 'He was aligned with foreign occupiers,' before describing him as a 'puppet' of the West and claiming he was on the CIA payroll. Walid Karzai had denied working for the CIA or having profited from the illegal seizure of government and private land - another Taliban claim. His death has left a dangerous power vacuum in the south as the Afghan government pursues peace talks with insurgents ahead of a U.S. troop withdrawal. The international military coalition has few friends of stature in the province and none with the influence of Mr Karzai's half brother - considered a master operator and the uncrowned 'king' of Kandahar. Without his sibling, the president will struggle to find an ally resourceful and ruthless enough to balance alliances with tribal and political leaders, drug runners and militias in a province where the Taliban still holds much influence. Rustam Shah, former Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan, said Wali Karzai's death exposed the fragility of the security infrastructure in the southern provinces, particularly Kandahar. He said: 'It will be a big blow to the government's image in the Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan.'The president will have to be very careful to move quickly to consolidate and maintain his power structure in Kandahar.'