Afghanistan: Taliban in Pakistan planned ex-president's murder

Oct 1, 2011, 15:07 GMT

Kabul - Afghanistan's intelligence agency on Saturday said the assassination of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani was 'directly linked' to top Taliban leadership in Pakistan.

'Documents and evidence we recovered tell us that the assassination of Rabbani is directly linked to the Quetta Shura,' Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for National Directorate of Security, told reporters in Kabul.

The Taliban leadership council is known as Quetta Shura, named after the Pakistani city where they are believed to be based.

Rabbani was the chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, which leads Afghan efforts to negotiate with the Taliban. His killing almost two weeks ago marked a blow to reconciliation efforts with the insurgents.

Mashal said the agency had handed over all the information and evidence to the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, 'hoping that they will take action against those responsible.'

'Addresses, photographs, and maps of the locations of these people are included in this package,' Mashal said, adding that the conspirators were based in a satellite town outside Quetta 'where it is impossible to take such decisions without security officials knowing about it.'

Rabbani's assassination has raised questions as to whether President Hamid Karzai will still go ahead with reconciliation efforts with the Taliban.

In a Friday meeting with the religious leaders of the Afghan Ulema Council, made up of imams and mullahs, Karzai implied that all the 'enemies of Afghanistan' were based in Pakistan.

'The only solution - that is also a hope of Afghan people - is that the negotiations and talks must take place with the Pakistani side because all hideout locations of the enemy are located in that country,' a statement from presidential palace said, quoting Karzai.

Rabbani was killed on September 20 at his well-guarded home in Kabul by a suicide bomber purported to be a Taliban peace messenger, who had hidden explosives in his turban.

The Taliban has not claimed responsibility for the killing.

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