News - Afghanistan

The Pakistani government, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency and the Taliban's Quetta Shura were directly involved in the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghanistan's interior minister said on Saturday.

Addressing the Afghan House of Representatives, Interior Minister General Bismellah Mohammadi said that the plot to kill Mr Rabbani, the head of the High Peace Council, was hatched outside Afghanistan five to six months ago.

There is "no doubt the ISI is involved," Gen Mohammadi said.

On Saturday top Afghan security officials, including interior and defence ministers and the acting spy chief, were summoned to the parliament to brief lawmakers about the findings of an investigation into the death of Mr Rabbani.

Mr Rabbani, who was tasked with brokering peace between the Taliban and the Afghan government, was killed at his home in Kabul by a suicide bomber pretending to be a peace envoy from the Taliban leadership.

After the death of Mr Rabbani, President Karzai formed a panel comprised of senior security officials under the lead of Defence Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak to investigate the assassination of the slain leader.

At a separate press conference on Saturday, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) said that the assassination of Mr Rabbani was organised in an area of Quetta in Pakistan.

NDS Spokesman Lotfullah Mashal said that it was beyond reason to believe that the Pakistani military could not become aware of such a plan given the close tabs it keeps on that area.

The defence minister, General Wardak, also told parliament that Pakistani military officials denied firing rockets into the country.

Over the past week, hundreds of rockets fired from Pakistan have landed in the Afghan border regions of Kunar and Nuristan provinces, leaving dozens dead and making hundreds of families flee their homes.

Taking serious measures against Pakistani rocket attacks coming into Afghanistan would require a national decision, Gen Wardak said.