Rabbani's killer was Pakistani: Karzai's office

Evidence shows that Rabbani's death last month "was plotted in Quetta by a Pakistani" says presidential statement.

The killer of Afghan peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani was Pakistani, a statement from Afghanistan's presidential palace said Sunday, quoting investigators.

Evidence shows that Rabbani's death last month "was plotted in Quetta and the person who carried out the suicide attack against Rabbani was a citizen of Pakistan," the statement said.

It added that the killer had been living in Chaman, a Pakistani border town near Quetta.

Karzai's government has been struggling to start talks with the Taliban in a bid to end the 10-year insurgency in Afghanistan but has made no meaningful progress.

Karzai's spokesman Siamak Herawi said Sunday that the president was reviewing his peace strategy, adding that he would reveal next steps "very soon".


The announcement from the presidential palace adds to the Afghan spy agency's recent statements to The Express Tribune claiming that Rabbani's assassination was plotted in Quetta.

“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.

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.

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