Islamabad, Oct 3 (IANS) Pakistan has rejected as ‘baseless’ Afghan Interior Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi’s assertion that its spy agency ISI was involved in the assassination of former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Foreign office spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua said that Rabbani was a great friend of Pakistan and widely respected. He lived in the country for a long time and had many friends.
Evidence given to the Pakistan embassy in Kabul is a confessional statement of Afghan national Hamidullah Akundzadeh, accused of master-minding the attack, the official APP news agency quoted her as saying Sunday in a statement.
Janjua added that the Afghan minister had not highlighted the fact that the assassin and his handler were in Kandahar and Kabul for quite some time.
He also did not say the assassin had been four days in the guest house of the High Peace Council, managed by Rabbani’s close aides, Janjua stressed, adding that the assassin was also apparently not body searched before the meeting.
These facts are also part of the evidence handed over to the Pakistan embassy by the Afghan intelligence, she said.
The official noted that Mohammadi’s statement was all the more regrettable as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had himself offered cooperation in the investigation during his visit to Kabul for condolences with Rabbani’s family.
Instead of making such irresponsible statements, those in positions of authority in Kabul should seriously deliberate as to why all those Afghans who are favourably disposed towards peace and towards Pakistan are systematically being removed from the scene and killed, Janjua added.
She said there was a need to take stock of the direction taken by Afghan intelligence and security agencies.
Rabbani, who headed the Afghan High Peace Council, was killed in a suicide blast at his house in Kabul Sep 20.
