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‘Documentary proof’: Kabul blames Quetta Shura for ex-president’s assassination
Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security says evidence handed to Pakistan mission in Afghan capital.
Rabbani, who became president soon after the fall of the Soviet-backed government during the early 1990s, was killed at his Kabul home by a suicide bomber claiming to be carrying a message of peace from the Taliban leadership. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE
KARACHI: Amidst a fusillade of US allegations, Afghanistan on Saturday ratcheted up pressure on Pakistan, blaming the Afghan Taliban allegedly based in Balochistan for the mid-September assassination of a top Afghan peacemaker.
The Afghan spy agency said that it has handed Pakistan ‘evidence’ of the involvement of Quetta Shura – the Taliban’s leadership council – in the killing of Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former Afghan president and chief of High Peace Council.
“We have submitted to Pakistan’s Embassy in Kabul evidence, including names and addresses, of the people involved in the murder of Burhanuddin Rabbani,” Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS) told The Express Tribune by phone from Kabul.
Rabbani was killed by a turban bomber impersonating a Taliban emissary on September 20 at the former’s house in the upscale Wazir Akbar Khan neighbourhood of Kabul.
“We recovered a mobile phone SIM card from the pocket of the bomber which led us to the mastermind,” Mashal said, without naming the person. However, Afghan Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi, giving testimony in parliament on Saturday, identified him as Hameedullah Akhondzada.
Although Mashal did not say there was any official Pakistani support for the plot, Mohammadi said Pakistan’s top military spy agency, ISI, played a role in the killing.
Mashal said the mastermind has confessed to his involvement in the assassination. “The bomber was brought all the way from Quetta’s Satellite Town to Kabul by the mastermind who is in our custody,” he said of Akhondzada.
A day after Rabbani’s killing, the Afghan police had identified the bomber as Mullah Asmatullah who, they said, carried a letter and video messages from the Quetta-based senior leadership of the Taliban. Mashal was heading an inquiry commission, comprising interior ministry, National Security Council and the NDS, set up by President Hamid Karzai to investigate Rabbani’s killing. Mashal said it transpired during the investigation that the killing was plotted directly Quetta Shura.
The Taliban had claimed responsibility for the assassination the same day but a day after they retracted their claim and accused the media for wrongly attributing the claim to them.
“We have documentary proof of the Taliban’s claim of responsibility,” Mashal said. “They might have retracted their claim on the orders of their ‘foreign masters’ after realising that this incident would have serious consequences,” he added.
When asked, the Taliban spokesperson on Saturday again rejected the claim of responsibility. “Our leadership council has stopped us from commenting on the issue until the investigation is completed,” Zabiullah Mujahid told The Express Tribune by phone.
Despite repeated attempts on his cell phone, Pakistan’s Ambassador in Kabul Muhammad Sadiq was not available to confirm or deny the receipt of the dossier Mashal was referring to.
But Information Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan termed the Afghan allegations as false and baseless.
She told the media in Islamabad that the Foreign Office and other concerned departments were studying the issue and would soon offer a formal response.
(With additional input from Wires)
Published in The Express Tribune, October 2nd, 2011.
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Reader Comments (46)
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One more American conspiracy to pit one Islamic nation against another.
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Let us see how Pak gets out of this one.
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Great. Soon we’ll hear that the ISI provides moral support to the Quetta shura which is its veritable leg.
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seems like Preparing ground to start an offence in Quetta by Nato ..
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Make it public if Afg have any kind of evidence..Stop back doors diplomacy.
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This is really a serious allegation, so far we have denied the Quetta Shura, but very soon our actual policy makers shall come up to our legislators by fooling them in some other briefing session about 3 or 4 wings of Quetta Shura, by denouncing our no alliance to the armed wing of Shura,
Who on God’s earth shall believe them except our incompetent ruling elite, We really need to reconsider our Afghan policy.
There are no good Taliban———————–.Recommend
So What’s the big surprise? – everyone one knows that Quetta is full of terrorists and our government does not have the backbone to face them.
My old boss Mr Zia thought he could control the mullahs but the fact is we have lost control. We need to re think outdated policy such as strategic depth and do whats best for pakistan – by taking out the terrorists before america does it for us
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Make love not war
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The usual suspects!
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The birds must have already flown by now. Information to terrorists who are State Assets, flies at the speed of Light. The foolish Afghans should have presented the evidence to the UN or foreign missions if they were serious about getting the culprits arrested. In the 26/11 Mumbai massacre too there were pious denials and a whitewashing job was hastily done. That both Indians and Americans did independent investigations and shared it with the International community helped cut short the litany of lies.
The people of Afghanistan are seething in anger. They are long in memory and short in patience so the rewards for Rabbani’s murder may start flowing very shortly. The fate of Pakistani citizens is never a consideration for the chess players.
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Is Afganistan not aware that hard evidence sent by India in 26/11 case is gathering dust for the past three years and half of it has already been eaten by the termites ?
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That guy was living under your nose. You failed to protect like you Afghanis always do. Don’t give lame and dumb excuse of your short comings. You can fool world can’t fool Pakistanis. Try to clean your garbage don’t spill here. After the killing now you come up with ” all the names, locations and map” etc. This is funny, I can use this story for next Hollywood or Bollywood movie!
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So the suicide bomber spent four nights as a “guest” with the security guards of Burhanuddin Rabbani while he had explosive material hidden in his turban!!!! Shouldn’t the Afghans be investigating the security guards?
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CIA’s new conspiracy. I dont know what US want, I think after Afghanistan it wants Pakistan and then China and then India indeed.OMG
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Afghan intelligence? That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one! We all know that Afghan intelligence is nothing but a front for India’s RAW agency to plan attacks and hurt innocents in Pakistan. A good number of the bombings and attacks in Pakistan originate in Afghanistan and the Afghanis are trying to divert attention from their own nation being the epicenter of terrorism and crime. If they were serious, they should agree with Pakistan to fully seal the Pak Afghan border so that there is no movement of people across the border. The same way that the US has made a big wall/ fence at the border with Mexico, we need to make a big fence to stop the movement of people across our border.
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Yeah, and Iraq had WMDs. too, right?
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The response is already ready..
The evidense is inconclusive
The evidense will not stand scrutiny in court of law
Its just a document
Courts in Pakistan are independent
We have asked for more evidense
A panel will travel to Kabul to collect evidense and question Afganis
There is no legal treaty between Afganistan and us
We are victims of terrorismRecommend
what evidence? the guy came, blew himself up, that’s it. how do they know where he came from? afghan officials have little writ in afghanistan. who did they capture to find out such details? all bul…..
there are no afghan posters here but look at indians here. they are more afghan than afghans, more americans than americans.
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@Diggvijay Singh
In the 90s the Afghan Muslim brothers, all participants of Afghan jihad, were mercilessly killing each other. Taliban and Northern Alliance were locked in a deadly civil war; whats so surprising about this new evidence?
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@Vasan
The way, we came out from such like situation after Mumbai Massacre. Indians Brother, pls don’t expect too much from US.Recommend
This asertion shows that the Afghans refugees are a great danger for Pakistan and should be sent back home. I recommend that following should be made part of the investigation:
1. UNHCR which does not allow the refugees to go back and force their stay upon Pakistan. This allows Afghan terrorists to merge in the refugees.
2. President Hamid Karzai for not allowing fencing along Pak – Afghan Border which allows free movement for terrorists and refugees.
3. Chief of Immigration department of both Afghanistan and Pakistan for allowing entry into Pakistan without document.
4. NATO and ISAF (49 Countries) for spending billions but failing to seal the border with Pakistan.
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The war in Afghanistan has gone complicated after the demise of Ex President Rabbani. Blaming Pak for everything is not fair. It would be in the interest of Pakistan and Afghanistan to investigate the issue jointly.
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@Mariam
I’m ready :))
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The suicide bomber introduced himself to Afghan Intelligence that he was from Quetta Shura. That is the reason they are sure of Pak involvement. After all during his four daze stay he told them everything. What an intelligent Intelligence.
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@Maulana Diesel:
I agree with you. The suicide bomber was taken to Mr Burhan Ud din Rabbani by the Hamid Karzai adviser Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai. If that is the level of affinity between Karzai and bombers
Or
if that is the level of incompetence of security establishment in Afghanistan, then they have no right to blame others.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039689/Burhanuddin-Rabbani-Former-Afghan-president-assassinated-suicide-bomber.html#ixzz1ZXT6hIgl
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The Plan is to disturb Law & Order so much in Pakistan that it becomes a Lawless state with least Govt. Control . Where smaller Groups Armed and financed by the it will strike at will on security agencies and across the border. This violence must and will spill over from Pakistan to India. The law and Order situation in India will become like Pakistan and then to spill over in only US but also EU , they can;t afford it. But Under the disguise of “WAR ON TERROR” this China which , by no means, is the real target. Since direct conflict with China will destroy not agenda is being advanced. Pakistan is resisting this onward invasion. The Motive behind this is all economic. EU and US has seen that no growth can be possible either in Europe or USA if China and India kept growing at current pace. Therefore War on Terror is a tool to export terrorism from one country to another by supporting such small groups and finally get the objective of destroying most growing economies. If people don’t believe it then just quietly see what happened since 9/11. And what is happening now. New war fronts are being Opened in Libya , Somalia and Yemen. Afghanistan totally became Lawless and this terror has destroyed Pakistan security up to a certain level.What’s the reason to stay in Afghanistan if OBL is killed? That tells us that OBL story or even the whole narrative was as false as were Weapons of Mass destruction and Axis of Evil.
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Hassan Tariq Here. I will consider all this thing a conspiracy against Pakistan. There is nothing to do with Afghanistan. That’s was also a dictation given by America to Karzai.
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Why isn’t it a surprise anymore?
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Sad, we don’t want to learn from our mistakes!
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@Parmeet Gill:
That is what the end game would be
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Can anyone name a single instance where Pakistan has acted properly based on evidence provided by it’s neighbors or allies? In this case Pakistan won’t even acknowledge there is such a thing as the Quetta Shura,
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Our Army must accept that we
ll work with Haqqanis or other groups to secure our interests in Afghanistan. This is the truth & the reality which is why we dont go after groups operating from North Waziristan. Every Country in the world will support groups that are considered militant but to protect their own Interests. Example: Iran supports Hizbollah, USA Supported Taliban against USSR etc.So, why is our Army hiding? We should oppose drones killing militia`s supported by our Army & take our destiny into our hands.
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What difference is it going to make? None. Pakistan will ask for more evivdence for next 100 years as it is the modes operandi of Pakistan.
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@Diggvijay Singh:
The people of Afghanistan does not like Pakistan. They know how Pakistan helped tha Taliban to unleash atrocities on the population day in and day out and how shabbily Pakistan treated Afghan refugees.
The idea of a democratic stable Afghanistan scares Pakistanis and Pakistan will do everything in its powere not to that to happen.Recommend
People should remember that pakistan has lost the most number of lives in war on terror, even more than the taleban and al-qaeda.
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Unfortunately Pakistan always asks for evidence of anything said against it. Equally unfortunately the authorities who determine whether or not the evidence is sufficient or not are also Pakistani and not an independent court. If an independent court hears the evidence it would come to a different conclusion. Unfortunately this never happens and Pakistan is able to get away with denial after denial little realising that it is in its own interest to accept and rectify.
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To all Pakistanis. Keep living in denial.Recommend
Yeah, confession!! Give us Karzai and we would make him confess he plotted the 9/11 attacks with Quran in his hands!!!
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@Maria: Why would India kill Rabbani? He was trying to bring peace to his country by opening a dialogue with the Taliban. India has nothing to gain from destabilising Pakistan because if India did it she will have to cope with all those Muslims which she does not want. So keep your ideas to yourself and try to bring peace to your country Pakistan. Look inward for problems.Recommend
Afghan intel learn from RAW.
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Conspiracy, Conspiracy, Conspiracy. Afghanistan intelligence. Lols. What a joke. Nothing wil happen to shura, nothing wil happen to pakistan, pakistan wil get out of it, Rabbani was a good leader, a mujahid, a fighter, he was killed/assasinated by the americans, the plot was not made in Quetta, rather it was made in kabul Embassy. But why would american do such a thing? Very simple answer. 1st reason, he was against the “strategic agreemnt” between washington kabul. 2ndly he was against the use of force against taliban, cuz too many afghan civilian casualties wer the result of too much force. 3rdly he was in favor of bringing pak in for talks wit taliban bt americans wer against it.
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Establishment had no choice but to remove him. USA had sidelined Pakistan to hold talks and that would have them have no hold in Afghanistan.
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@Omair Shakil: One mistake does not make other wrongs right !!! If thats your tone remember Pakistan initially denied involvement in “kargil” and then by embarrassment admit the crime.
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@R S JOHAR:
and what r those hard evidences…do u even know about ?
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@maria “a big fence to stop the movement of people across our border” is oxymoron to strategic depth and strategic assets.LOL
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these comments say it all.. we as Pakistani’s afghani’s need to wake and see why this is happening, maybe there is more than meets the eye??.
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