‘ISI, Taliban behind Rabbani hit’

Afghan Interior Minister Bismullah Muhammadi Khan says he has compelling evidence that shows the assassination of the former president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was planned in Pakistan.

Speaking in the Afghan parliament on Saturday, Muhammadi Khan said the assassination plot had been devised months ago by the Taliban leadership council in Quetta, which is located 700 kilometers (435 miles) southwest of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, and in cooperation with the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

“Without any doubt, ISI hand has been involved,” the Pakistani newspaper Dawn quoted the Afghan interior minister as saying in its October 2 edition.

He added that one of the masterminds behind the plot, Hameedullah Akhondzada, has been arrested.

“We have detained Hameedullah Akhondzada, who confessed that it was nothing but a plot,” Muhammadi Khan stated out.

He went on to say that a fact-finding mission would be dispatched to Pakistan to investigate the case, adding that the Pakistani government has been given a list of those involved in the assassination.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) said on Saturday that the plot to kill Rabbani was hatched in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

“A confession from those we detained in regard to Rabbani’s assassination shows a direct involvement of the Quetta Shura,” NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said in Kabul.

He added that one of the people arrested was a key player in the plot.

“He provided evidence and documents which we have submitted to the Pakistan Embassy. Pakistan is obliged to take action based on mutual cooperation and diplomatic ties with Afghanistan,” Mashal stated.

Rabbani, who was serving as the head of Afghanistan’s Peace Council, was killed on September 20 during a meeting with Taliban militants at his house in Kabul.

A militant, who had reportedly hidden explosives in his turban, blew himself up during the meeting.

Five other people, all senior Afghan officials, were also killed in the attack, and the head of the joint secretariat of the High Council for Peace, Massum Stanikzai, was injured.