... the murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan...
on Pak soil.
The Afghan interior minister, giving testimony in parliament, also said a criminal mastermind of the plot, Hameedullah Akhondzada, had been set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock. The minister said the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had played a role in the killing.
Rabbani, who was head of the High Peace Council charged with trying to reach a negotiated settlement to the war, was killed at his home in Kabul on Sept 20 by a jacket wallah claiming to be carrying a message of peace from the Taliban leadership.
"Without any doubt ISI hand has been involved," Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi told politicians on Saturday, while discussing Rabbani's killing. "We have jugged Hameedullah Akhondzada who confessed that it was nothing but a plot."
Mr Mohammadi said a fact-finding mission was leaving for Pakistain on Saturday to investigate further, and Islamabad had been given a list of those involved.
Spokesperson for the Foreign Office Tehmina Janjua said Pakistain had not received any information, although Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani
... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ...
had conveyed to Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid
Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai
... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a
Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use...
an offer of cooperation in the investigation. "Pakistain's offer to investigate stands. As yet, no dossier has been received," she said.
Akhondzada has been named by the Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security (NDS), but it has given no details of his identity. Acting NDS chief Rahmatullah Nabeel also said Akhondzada had been jugged, but gave no details.
Rabbani was the most prominent surviving leader of the ethnic Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance of fighters and politicians and his killing was seen as a heavy blow to hopes of peace talks and has brought fears of worsening ethnic rifts among Afghans fighting the Taliban-led insurgency.
The NDS front man, at a separate news conference, said the mid-Sept suicide kaboom that killed Rabbani was plotted in an upmarket suburb of the Pak city of Quetta.
The Taliban leadership council is known as the Quetta Shura and is believed to be based in that city, although the krazed killer group says it operates only from Afghanistan.
Pakistain denies the existence of any Taliban Shura in Quetta.
"A confession from those we jugged in regard to Rabbani's liquidation shows a direct involvement of the Quetta Shura," NDS front man Lutfullah Mashal said, adding that one of those set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock was a key player in the plot.
"(He) provided evidence and documents which we have submitted to the Pakistain Embassy. Based on mutual cooperation and diplomatic ties with Afghanistan, Pakistain is obliged to take action," he told a news conference in Kabul.
Rabbani's liquidation was plotted in Quetta's Satellite Town, an expensive area home to many officials and the city's elite, Mr Mashal said, adding that a commission had been set up to investigate the killing, and further details would be given soon.
Hours after Rabbani was killed, a front man for the Taliban grabbed credit for his death while talking to a Rooters' news hound in Pakistain from
However,
a lie repeated often enough remains a lie...
the front man later issued statements denying that he had made a claim of responsibility and said the Taliban were not willing to comment on Rabbani's liquidation.