On Thursday, Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta, National Security Advisor to President Karzai during his brother's funeral in Herat province, accused Pakistan's intelligence agencies of assassinating his brother. He said that the killing of high ranking officials and their family members is always the work of foreign intelligence agencies.

At the funeral, Dr. Spanta revealed that two weeks ago, the Taliban had sent him a threat message notifying that the group is planning to kill his brother.

"The foreign elements are training and hiding some people in Peshawar and Quetta. After the training, they are sent on terror missions during which they kill our brothers, sisters and relatives," said Dr. Spanta.

Dr. Spanta emphasised that the Taliban has only two choices left. Firstly, they may join the peace process and secondly, they could choose to fight until they are eliminated completely.

Over the past two years terrorist groups have been targeting national dignitaries and their family members. They have assassinated the High Peace Council Chief, Burhanuddin Rabbani; President Karzai's brother Abdul Wali Karzai and now Ahmad Wali Tahiri, brother of Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta, National Security Advisor to President Karzai.

Dr. Spanta said that the leaders of the Taliban are given shelter in Pakistan and the country is controlling their operations.

While speaking at the funeral, he added that the Taliban members who went to Qatar for the inauguration of their office, possessed Pakistani passports and they flew from Pakistan to reach Qatar.

"For over 11 years, Pakistan has always been telling the United Nations that it does not know the whereabouts of Taliban's leader. But, nobody asked those Taliban members who visited Qatar about their identities or anything about their nationality (passport)," responded Dr. Spanta.

The National Security Advisor pointed out that the strong reaction from the government, political parties and civil society institutions against the Taliban's office in Qatar has shocked the heads and supporters of the group. Because of the recent development, the group is now left with only one choice, which is to voluntarily join the peace process. If they still refrain from joining,then the Afghan Security Forces will eliminate them.

"There are only two options: Firstly, the armed opposition groups should voluntarily join the peace process and secondly, if they choose not to join, then our Security Forces will fight and eliminate them," warned Dr. Spanta.

These comments from Dr. Spanta came in after Ahmad Wali Tahiri, brother of Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta, National Security Advisor to President Karzai, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen belonging to the Taliban in western Herat province early Wednesday.

The incident took place in the Kurkh district, when a number of gunmen on motorbikes open fired on Ahmad Wali Tahiri, while he was on his way to office. The killers immediately fled from the crime scene.

According to reports, it is said that Wali Tahiri was killed because of the recent comments made by Dr. Spanta about the peace process. The comments made by him angered the Taliban and they threatened to kill Wali Tahiri. Dr. Spanta had subtly criticised the peace process during a closed-door Lower House session by saying that even though the peace process has not been successful so far, and contact between Taliban officials and government officials remains informal, a peace process does still exist for Afghanistan. This comment is considered as the ignition point, which resulted in the assassination of Wali Tahiri.

Meanwhile, the provincial security officials said that so far, they have arrested four people who are suspected to have been involved in the assassination of the National Security Advisor's brother.