http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/world/asia/Burhanuddin-Rabbani-afghan-peace-council-leader-assassinated.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
Afghan Peace Council Chief Killed in Attack on His Home By ALISSA J. RUBIN and RICK GLADSTONE Published: September 20, 2011 — The most prominent Afghan official trying to negotiate a reconciliation with the Taliban was assassinated Tuesday night by a suicide bomber with explosives tucked in his turban who had been brought to his home by a trusted emissary, officials said. The assassination was a potentially devastating blow to the Afghan-led peace process aimed at ending 10 years of war. S. Sabawoon/European Pressphoto Agency Burhanuddin Rabbani, former Afghan president and now the head of the High Peace Council, in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May. The main victim of the attack, Burhanuddin Rabbani, was the leader of the High Peace Council, and had been tasked with reaching out to the Taliban for ways to resolve the conflict. Mr. Rabbani was also a former president of Afghanistan, and news of his death sent shock waves through the Afghanistan government just as President Hamid Karzai was at the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Karzai was cutting short his trip to head home, aides said. Other members of the High Peace Council said the bomber had been vetted as a messenger who was said to have information for Mr. Rabbani and had been escorted into Mr. Rabbani’s heavily guarded home by Rahmatullah Wahidyar, a former minister of the Taliban government before it was deposed by the American-led invasion in 2001. Mr. Rabbani and Mr. Wahidyar had both fought against the Soviets in the 1980s during the occupation. The bomber was not searched as a sign of trust, the Peace Council members said. He embraced Mr. Rabbani, then detonated his explosives, killing Mr. Rabbani and seriously wounding at least three other people. Mr. Wahidyar’s fate was unclear. Ministers of the Afghan government raced to the scene and streets were closed off near Mr. Rabbani’s home. “This is not good for the peace process,” said a member of parliament on the defense committee, Shukria Barakzai, one of the few female members of the legislature, who was crying as she spoke in reaction to the news. Another Afghan integral to the peace process, Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, was with Mr. Rabbani at the time of the attack and sustained serious injuries, according to a doctor at the military hospital where he was taken for surgery. At the United Nations, Mr. Karzai called Mr. Rabbani “an Afghan patriot who sacrificed his life.” He made the remarks to reporters as he began talks with President Obama, who expressed his condolences and called Mr. Rabbani’s death a “tragic loss.” “We both believe that despite this incident that we will not be deterred from creating a path whereby Afghans can live in freedom, safety, security and prosperity,” Mr. Obama said. Mr. Rabbani, who led a powerful resistance group during the Soviet occupation, became president in the 1990s following the Soviet withdrawal. He was killed a week after Taliban insurgents orchestrated a surprise attack on several Kabul neighborhoods that demonstrated the seeming ease with which they can strike, despite ambitious efforts by the American-led NATO forces here to improve security and persuade Taliban insurgents to engage in negotiations to end the war. The Taliban attacks have called into question the basic readiness of President Karzai’s forces to assume security in the country as the foreign military forces gradually withdraw, as they have pledged to do by the end of 2014. The killing of Mr. Rabbani was the third time in three months that a high-ranking Afghan official was assassinated in a place that was supposed to be secure, infiltrating the coteries of guards and walled compounds that surround Afghan politicians. In July, President Karzai’s powerful half-brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was gunned down by a trusted associate in the heavily guarded compounded in southern Afghanistan where he would receive visitors each day. Days later, Taliban gunmen stormed the home of another Karzai ally, the former governor of Oruzgan, Jan Mohammed Khan, and opened fire. Alissa J. Rubin reported from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Sangar Rahimi and Jack Healy contributed reporting from Kabul [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
