Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani killed in blast in Kabul

[Pakistani Nationalist]

First you ask for proof, then you ask for evidence.

For your perusal: Proof and evidence

proof of the rant tht isi was involved? evidence to back ur claim??


Cheap shots,rants,abuses r quiet a hallmark of this forum....thumbs up.

 

[Yusuf]

How dare you boys blame Pakistan and the saints in ISI? Pakistan is the epicenter of peace in the world. 180 million saints spreading the message of peace for the 7 billion of the world.

You guys should be ashamed of accusing saints of peace.

 

[pmaitra]

proof of the rant tht isi was involved? evidence to back ur claim??


Cheap shots,rants,abuses r quiet a hallmark of this forum....thumbs up.

I think I have discussed this before, either with you or with some other Pakistani here at DFI. The point is that it is not only India, but many other countries have accused Pakistan of exporting terrorism. These countries include, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, UK, Serbia etc..

All of these countries could not be lying.

 

[ejazr]

Rabbani was the last President of Afghanistan thatn India recognised back in 1992. After than Afghanistan went to the dogs and was taken over by the Taliban. It was until 2002 that India again established diplomatic relations under Karzai.

Rabbani also was a ethnic Tajik and because of his religious background had lot of popularity even among the conservative Pashtoons. He was probably becoming to successful in getting the Taliban to withdraw from the PA/ISI embrace and reconcile with the govt.

There has been a number of reports on Pakistani connection to assassinations of senior officials in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan connection

NDS has recently added to the body of evidence it has presented linking militants in Pakistan to attacks in Afghanistan by revealing a series of further details that connect militants in Peshawar and Mohmand with attacks inside Afghanistan. According to Badahkshan NDS chief Ali Ahmad Mubarez, the young boy intending to detonate himself at the Najm-ul-Madaris mosque in Badakhshan on Sept. 2 had confessed during preliminary interrogation that his training for the attack took place at the Haqqani Madrasa in Peshawar City. Of the four-man terror cell arrested on Aug. 22 that was plotting to attack the District 2 Police Headquarters in Kabul City, three were Afghans residing in Peshawar, according to the NDS.

In mid-August, NDS officers broke up a suicide bomb cell in Kapisa province and nabbed the 19-year-old would-be bomber, Yaseen, a resident of Deh Sabz of Kabul who had lived in Akorra Khatak of Peshawar before being sent on his mission by the Taliban.

Similarly, Atiqullah, the suicide bomber who detonated inside the Defense Ministry on April 18, had lived in Hayat Abaad, Peshawar and received his military training from the Haqqani Network in Pakistan's Mohmand tribal agency, according to his brother, Shaifqullah, a Taliban militant nabbed by the NDS in late June. Atiqullah came to Kabul to commit the suicide attack and stayed for a couple of days in the Ghazniwaal market area. Both Atiqullah and his brother Shaifqullah, who is still held in detention by the NDS, originally came from Paktia province (Sayed Karam district) and were aligned with the Haqqani Network. [For more details on the connection between Afghan insurgents and Pakistan, LWJ reports Haqqani Network directed Kabul hotel assault by phone from Pakistan and 'They come from ISI' - Afghan colonel on insurgent threat.]

Senior Afghan officials have also accused foreign governments of conducting an assassination campaign against political and security leaders. Jawedan, quoting Tolonews this past Sunday, reported that Borhanuddin Rabbani, the head of the peace council (Shuraya-e-Solh), said that the spate of recent terror attacks against senior Afghan officials had been planned by the "foreign intelligence organizations."

Several high-profile assassinations have rocked Afghanistan since the launch of the Taliban's summer offensive earlier this year. The victims include the President's half-brother and major powerbroker of southern Afghanistan, Ahmad Wali Karzai; the Provincial Police Chief for Kunduz; the Provincial Police Chief for Takhar; the Provincial Police Chief for Kandahar; the Mayor of Kandahar City; and the Afghan National Police General for RC-North, General Daud Daud.

It should also be noted, however, that the NDS has confirmed the arrests of numerous individuals in the past few weeks who were plotting to assassinate various officials including the Interior Minister, Besmillah Mohammadi; Balkh Governor Attah Mohammad Noor; and Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, the former jihadi leader and current Member of Parliament.

This past weekend, Rabbani spoke to the media while visiting Kandahar province, in the wake of the resignation of two senior officials tasked with reconciliation efforts in Kandahar, where a string of bloody and bold assassinations has politically paralyzed the local administration. Rabbani said that killing people under the name of Taliban is "one of the tricks that foreign intelligence agencies have benefited from," and that such activities tarnish the religion of Islam. Rabbani stressed the seriousness of the situation, calling it "critical," and described the deaths in the Taliban assassination campaign against Afghan officials as a great loss for the country.

Amrullah Saleh, the former head of NDS, has voiced strong concerns about Pakistan. According to a report in Jawedan that quoted Tolonews, Saleh warned that for any progress against terrorism to be made, Pakistan must be pressed more by the international community. If that is not done, he said, the West cannot possibly win. Similarly, Dr. Abdullah, the Afghan Foreign Minister during Karzai's first term, has also criticized Pakistan, saying that the country is not an honest ally because of the different treatment it gives to the Afghan Taliban as opposed to the Pakistani Taliban. He observed that although the Pakistani army and its police are in a real fight with the Pakistani Taliban, the Afghan Taliban are freely moving around in Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban even "receives support and help and they have no problem at all being in Pakistan."

Read more: Afghan intelligence operations take on significant role - The Long War Journal

 

[Galaxy]

Proof?


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Panetta, Mullen hammer Pakistan over Haqqani network


WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday renewed blunt demands that Pakistan crack down on Haqqani militants allegedly based in the country, saying the network posed a serious threat to US forces in Afghanistan.

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters that Washington would "put as much pressure as possible on the Pakistanis to exercise control from their side of the border."

"We've continued to state that this cannot happen, we cannot have the Haqqanis coming across the border, attacking our forces, attacking Afghanistan"¦and then disappearing back into a safe haven. That is not tolerable," Panetta said.

He added: "I think they've heard the message, but we'll see."

Panetta's comments reflect a tougher public US line in recent days amid growing frustration in President Barack Obama's administration over the role of the Haqqani network.

The stern warnings also coincide with increasingly strained relations with Pakistan.

The Americans blame the Haqqani network for a recent bombing attack that wounded 77 US troops at a base in Wardak province and for an elaborate assault on September 13 on the US embassy and Nato headquarters in Kabul.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at an earlier event Tuesday the presence of the Haqqani sanctuaries potentially jeopardised the outcome of the war.

"Without that (Pakistani action), we can't succeed in the overall effort," he said.

Mullen said Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency had to sever all ties with the Haqqani militants, who allegedly operate out of sanctuaries in the country's northwest.

"I think that the ISI has to make the decision to strategically disengage. The ISI has been doing this, supporting proxies for an extended period of time," he told an audience at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Mullen met with his Pakistani counterpart over the weekend in Spain, General Ashfaq Kayani, and repeated Washington's impatience on the Haqqani militants.

At the Pentagon press conference, Mullen — who has held numerous talks with Kayani during his four year tenure — said there was no doubt about "the clarity with which I addressed this issue" in the meeting with the Pakistani general.

Panetta, Mullen hammer Pakistan over Haqqani network | World | DAWN.COM

 

[ejazr]

Afghans mourn slain ex-president on World Peace Day | World | Reuters

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghans gathered to mourn assassinated former president and chief peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani on Wednesday, World Peace Day, as fears mounted that his death could deepen ethnic divisions and nudge the country towards civil war.

Rabbani, perhaps the most prominent Afghan to be killed since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, died at his home on Tuesday when an insurgent he was due to hold talks with detonated explosives concealed in a turban.

The killing was widely seen as a strong statement of Taliban opposition to peace talks and the latest in a string of high-profile assassinations to shake the confidence of ordinary Afghans that security can be maintained as foreign forces withdraw.

The Taliban on Wednesday issued a statement saying the group was not prepared to comment on Rabbani's assassination, and rejecting Reuters reports that the group had claimed responsibility.

Rabbani was Afghanistan's most influential ethnic Tajik and his killing is likely to exacerbate ethnic divides, which could do more to damage peace efforts than the loss of a negotiator whose achievements were limited during his 11 months in charge.

"Our enemies must know that, with our Mujahideen, the soldiers of our martyred leader, we will take revenge on the bloodthirsty predators," said Atta Mohammad Noor, governor of northern Balkh province and a former Mujahideen commander loyal to Rabbani.

"Be sure that for every drop of his blood, thousands of soldiers and brave men will rise up and come to the battlefield against you," he said in a video message from Mazar-i-Sharif.

Several thousand people rallied in Faizabad, the capital of Rabbani's native Badakhshan province, and threatened revenge if the government failed to tackle the insurgents.

The crowd chanted "death to Pakistan, death to ISI," referring to the powerful spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which they blamed for Rabbani's killing.

Many Afghans accuse Islamabad and the ISI of decades of interference in Afghan politics. Pakistan bristles at such comments and Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua said Rabbani's death was a "huge loss for the process of reconciliation."
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[ejazr]

Fallout from the assassination is that Pakistan HERSELF has made an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan and India had to do nothing for it.

Kabul to Drop Three-Way Peace Effort - WSJ.com
KABUL—Afghanistan plans to suspend an effort to work with Pakistan and the U.S. to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table, Afghan officials said, taking a tougher line with Pakistan after last week's assassination of Kabul's top peace negotiator.

Senior U.S., Pakistani and Afghan officials had been set to meet in Kabul on Oct. 8 to discuss ways to get insurgents into peace talks and end the 10-year-old conflict. Afghanistan has now decided to cancel the meeting, deputy national-security adviser Shaida Mohammad Abdali said on Thursday.

Afghanistan also dropped plans for Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to attend a meeting in Kabul at the end of October of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Joint Commission for Reconciliation and Peace in Afghanistan, a three-month-old bilateral initiative intended to galvanize the peace process.
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Though Afghan officials have criticized Pakistan before, the cancellations signal a change in strategy. "From now on Afghanistan will follow 'trust but verify' approach toward Pakistan, in particular with regard to our peace effort," said Mr. Abdali, suggesting that Kabul would, as a policy, not readily accept Pakistan's offers of help.

Afghan and U.S. relations with Islamabad have deteriorated in recent weeks following the Sept. 13 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and the assassination of Mr. Rabbani a week later.

Last week, departing U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, of sponsoring the Haqqani network, the militant group blamed by the U.S. for the embassy attack.

Afghan officials have accused the ISI of organizing the plot that allowed a purported Taliban emissary to kill Mr. Rabbani. Mr. Rabbani was the head of the Afghan government's High Peace Council, which was responsible for attempts to broker a peace deal with the Taliban's top leaders, who are believed to be based in Quetta, Pakistan.

"This was a turning point," Mr. Abdali said of the assassination. "Definitely it goes back to the same place: Pakistan. The phone calls go all the way from here to Quetta." Mr. Abdali said the plot to kill Mr. Rabbani was too complicated to have been carried out by insurgents alone.

Pakistani officials have rejected the charges. "ISI isn't exporting any kind of terrorism to Afghanistan or aiding the Haqqani network," ISI chief Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha told a meeting of politicians and military leaders on Thursday, according to politicians who attended.

 

[ejazr]

Poor Afghans do a little dossier diplomacy of their own. I'm sure they know that like India, they will also get 0 results

Afghans Give Pakistanis Evidence In Rabbani Killing : NPR
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Lutifullah Mashal, a spokesman for the Afghan intelligence service, provided the first details about where the assassination was allegedly planned at a news conference on Saturday.

"The place where Professor Rabbani's killing was planned is a town called Satellite near Quetta, Pakistan," Mashal told reporters. "The key person involved in the assassination of Rabbani has been arrested and he has provided lots of strong evidence about where and how it was planned. We have given all that evidence to the Pakistan embassy."

The Afghan intelligence documents handed over to Pakistan's embassy in Kabul include the address, photographs and a layout of a house in Satellite, Mashal said. He said the Pakistanis also have been provided with the names of individuals who discussed Rabbani's assassination at the house in Satellite.

Mashal would not disclose the identity of the person in custody, saying only that he was a second-tier figure within the Taliban hierarchy.

He said additional details soon would be released by a commission set up to investigate Rabbani's death.

Asked what Afghanistan expected Pakistan to do with the information, Mashal referred the question to the Afghan Foreign Ministry and the commission.

"This is all concrete evidence that nobody can ignore," he said.

Earlier this week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met with top government, religious, political and jihadi leaders to discuss the peace effort and Afghanistan's relations with the U.S., the European Union and NATO.

The Afghan leaders said the Taliban have responded to peace overtures to peace by killing Afghanis, according to a statement released by Karzai's office after the meeting.

"With the assassination of Rabbani and the recent killings of other high-ranking people, the Taliban have shown they don't have the authority to have negotiations about peace in Afghanistan," the statement said.

It said that Pakistan has failed to take steps to eliminate terrorist sanctuaries and that if Pakistan's intelligence service is using the Taliban against Afghanistan, then the Afghan government needs to have negotiations with Pakistan, "not the Taliban."

 

[ejazr]

Saleem Safi one of the most incisive Pashtoon journalist in Pakistan gives his take on the assasination

Assassination of Rabbani - Saleem Safi

During my meeting with Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul last month I could never have imagined that this would be our last meeting. Just a few months ago he and I met during his visit to Islamabad. He then invited me to Kabul for a detailed discussion. So when I reached Kabul last month, I informed him of my availability and the very next day he invited me to the same house where, just a few days ago, he was targeted by a suicide bomber.

During our meeting last month, I requested him to record an interview for Geo, and he agreed. I asked him to record the interview in Urdu and again he happily consented. All these favours were not simply extended to honour me but were proof of his intentions to rebuild ties and rapport with Pakistan.

Though in Pakistan we largely rank Rabbani among anti-Pakistan elements, the facts are different from perception. At his core, he was not an anti-Pakistani. Whenever Pakistan took one step forward he welcomed the move with two. It is a known fact that from 1994 to 2001 Pakistan openly supported the Taliban against him, and for his own survival he had to seek help from Iran, Tajikistan, Russia and India. After 9/11 and with the collapse of the Taliban government he entered Kabul sitting on US tanks as president of the parallel government.

At that point he was well positioned to seek retribution from Pakistan as most of his colleagues chose to do. However, quite conversely, he was constantly on the lookout for channels to normalise relations with Pakistan. These efforts led him to contact even a mere journalist like me. I refused on the grounds that I am a professional journalist who has nothing to do with brokering between political entities. Additionally, I have no active links in the present government setup. However, on his insistence I informed then governor of the province Lt Gen (r ) Syed Iftekhar Hussain Shah about the communication and of Rabbani's intentions.

Later Rabbani phoned Shah and expressed his desire to forget the past and re-establish better ties with Pakistan. This positive move met with an icy cold response from the Pakistani policymakers and for many years he remained at a distance from Pakistan. However, Rabbani never stopped trying to establish healthy and positive relations with Pakistan. At Khan Abdul Wali Khan's funeral he complained that his property in Peshawar had been grabbed. I investigated the matter and found the complaint to be true. Moreover, the person responsible was a very influential member of that government setup.

When Pakistani policymakers contacted Rabbani recently he responded with such warmth that anti-Pakistan elements in Kabul dubbed him an agent of the ISI. Very few people know that his nomination to head the High Peace Commission was not merely Karzai's initiative but was firmly supported by Pakistan, which shows how much headway had been made in relations between Pakistan and Rabbani.

Those who live in the past and believe in outdated theories would have us believe that the Afghan High Peace Commission in itself was and is insignificant, and that Rabbani's death has created no major vacuum. But in my opinion, in his death, Afghanistan has lost a learned mind and a statesman of international stature. His death will negatively impact the peace efforts in Afghanistan; it is a serious loss for the Karzai government and an even bigger one for Pakistan. On the other hand, his death is beneficial for the US and all other actors that can't afford close relations between the Afghan government and the Taliban, and for Pakistan to enjoy a key role in any future setup. Presently the US is also engaged in negotiations with the Taliban and is busy seeking a political solution but there is a marked difference in its approach to negotiations. The US wishes to divide the Taliban and arrive at a formula that has no space for Mullah Omer, on the other hand Hamid Karzai and Rabbani openly invited Mullah Omer and Gulbadin Hikmatyar to participate in the negotiations.

Rabbani's death has serious repercussions for ethnic harmony in Afghanistan. In the previous presidential elections Rabbani was in the opposition camp. Recently, his nomination to chairman of the High Peace Commission helped build confidence between Pashtun and non-Pashtun ethnic groups. This move reassured other ethnic minorities that negotiations with the Taliban would not be at the expense of their interests.

Rabbani's death will make it difficult to rebuild this confidence. Since the Taliban are assumed responsible for his death and Pakistan is viewed as a supporter of the Taliban, this will also bring about anti-Pakistan feelings among Afghanistan's non-Pashtun ethnic groups. In his last days, one thing Rabbani mentioned repeatedly, and which he also mentioned in his interview with Geo, is that those who insist on war in Afghanistan are in fact providing a pretext for the foreign forces to stay on in Afghanistan, and thus are siding with the US.

Whoever is responsible for Rabbani's murder has seriously damaged the cause of Afghanistan, Islam and the exit of foreign forces and peace efforts in Afghanistan. Leaders are made in decades, and regardless of their ideology and thoughts, are assets of a nation. Rabbani was a great asset for Afghanistan. Those who target statesmen such as him do so to the detriment of the cause of Afghanistan, Islam and Pakistan.

 

[ejazr]

Kabul: Rabbani killing plotted in Pakistan - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English

The killer of Afghan peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani was a Pakistani, a statement from Afghanistan's presidential palace has said, quoting investigators.

Evidence shows that the former president's death last month "was plotted in Quetta and the person who carried out the suicide attack against Rabbani was a citizen of Pakistan," the statement released on Sunday said.

It added that the killer had been living in Chaman, a Pakistani border town near Quetta

And a swift denial from GoP

Angry Pakistan rejects Afghan charges on Rabbani | Reuters

Pakistan has angrily rejected allegations from Afghan officials that its intelligence agency masterminded the assassination of Kabul's chief peace negotiator with the Taliban.
An investigative delegation established by President Hamid Karzai said evidence and a confession provided by a man involved in Burhanuddin Rabbani's killing on September 20 had revealed that the bomber was Pakistani and the assassination had been plotted in Pakistan.

"Instead of making such irresponsible statements, those in positions of authority in Kabul should seriously deliberate as to why all those Afghans who are favorably disposed toward peace and toward Pakistan are systematically being removed from the scene and killed," Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"There is a need to take stock of the direction taken by Afghan Intelligence and security agencies."

Rabbani's killing derailed efforts to forge dialogue with the Taliban to end the 10-year war, and raised fears of a dangerous widening of Afghanistan's ethnic rifts.

Hundreds of Afghans took to the streets of Kabul on Sunday to condemn recent shelling of border areas by Pakistan's army and accuse the country's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency of involvement in Rabbani's killing.

In another sign of rising Afghan frustration with Islamabad, the peace council which Rabbani headed reiterated earlier comments by Karzai that negotiations should continue, but with Pakistan, rather than the Taliban, suggesting Islamabad was directing some militants from behind the scenes.

Afghan leaders have long questioned Islamabad's promises to help bring peace to their country. Pakistani intelligence is suspected of ties to militant groups in Afghanistan, especially the Haqqani network, one of the deadliest.

Pakistan sees the group as a strategic asset, a counterweight to the growing influence of rival India in Afghanistan, analysts say.

ISI chief Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha told Reuters last week that Pakistan never provided a single penny or bullet to the Haqqani network.

The network's leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, told the BBC in an interview broadcast on Monday his group was not linked to the ISI.

U.S. CRITICISM

Pakistan has also came under sharp criticism from its ally the United States -- the source of billions of dollars in aid -- over its performance against militancy.

The top U.S. military officer has accused Pakistani intelligence of supporting an attack allegedly carried out by the Haqqani group, which is close to al Qaeda, on the U.S. embassy in Kabul on Sept 13.

In the face of Pakistani indignation, the White House and State Department appeared to quietly distance themselves from the remarks by Admiral Mike Mullen, who stepped down this week as chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The United States wants Pakistan to crack down on the Haqqani network, which it believes is based in North Waziristan in the Afghan border, and other anti-American militants.

Pakistan says it has sacrificed more than any other country that joined the U.S.-led global campaign against militancy after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, losing thousands of soldiers and security forces.

It has been presenting that argument more vigorously since U.S. special forces found and killed Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in May in a Pakistani town, where he apparently had been living for years.

Instead of escalating attacks on militants, Pakistan seems to be searching for other ways to create stability in the unruly tribal areas near the Afghan border that offer sanctuaries.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani was quoted by Pakistani newspapers on Monday as saying the government was ready to talk peace with militants.

"We should give peace a chance in the first place by holding dialogue with militants," The Nation quoted him as saying.

The Express Tribune, quoted him as saying: "If negotiations fail to work. The government will launch military operations in the tribal areas."

Previous government peace deals with militants provided the groups with space to impose what many Pakistanis say was a reign of terror designed to impose their view of Islam in areas they controlled.

 

[Zebra]

Proof?


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At the end of the day , what will be the out come of all these proofs , which provided by the whole world .

Every time you guys ask for proof , when people privide that you guys just ran away as usual .

 

[Daredevil]

Mourners blame Pakistan at funeral for former Afghan president

AMIR SHAH AND CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
Kabul— The Associated Press

A surging crowd of mourners on Friday touched and kissed the coffin of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, slain by a suicide bomber claiming to carry a Taliban peace message, and vented at a host of perceived traitors and tricksters.

In angry chants at a hilltop cemetery, grieving followers blamed the Taliban for Afghanistan's woes, Pakistan for allegedly stirring up the conflict and their own government for trying to reconcile with insurgents. Shouts against the United States, which backs the government but is withdrawing troops, reflected frustration that a decade of Western support has failed to unite their divided land.

"Death to the foreign puppets," chanted the throng, some young men, others veterans of the guerrilla war against Soviet occupying forces in the 1980s. "Pakistan is our enemy ... Long live the resistance ... The Muslim people are united."

The outpouring of frustration, and declarations that the time for peacemaking has passed, contrasted with a stately funeral ceremony at the palace of President Hamid Karzai, who hailed Mr. Rabbani as a tireless advocate for reconciliation.

"It is our responsibility to act against those who are enemies of peace," said Mr. Karzai, urging Afghans to shun despair over the death of Mr. Rabbani in an attack at his home on Tuesday, and instead escalate efforts to bring an end to the fighting. The U.S.-led coalition seeks to exit by the end of 2014, raising questions about whether Afghan forces will be able to maintain security on their own.

The 70-year-old Mr. Rabbani was the leader of Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, which helped overthrow Taliban rule during the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. His death threatens to deepen rifts between the country's ethnic minorities, especially between those who made up the Northern Alliance — including Tajiks like Mr. Rabbani — and the majority Pashtun, who make up the backbone of the Taliban.

Mr. Karzai, who is Pashtun, had appointed Mr. Rabbani to Afghanistan's High Peace Council, which was seeking to reconcile the nation's warring factions. It has made little headway since it was formed a year ago, but its efforts are backed by many in the international community.

One by one, lawmakers and foreign envoys stepped up to pay tribute before Mr. Rabbani's casket, draped in a red, black and green national flag. A military band played the national anthem. Then the coffin was carried by uniformed servicemen with caps and white gloves, marching stiffly.

A procession of vehicles, some bearing large portraits of Mr. Rabbani, showing him dignified in robes and with a long white beard, drove up a hill overlooking Kabul, the capital. There, the observances turned unruly. Gunfire erupted briefly, possibly because guards were jittery about the possibility of an attack.

Supporters of the former president's political faction, chanting and distraught, reached out to the coffin and the funeral at one point resembled an opposition rally.

"Death to those wanting to make a deal," they said. "We don't want Karzai."

The suicide attacker who killed Mr. Rabbani had a bomb in his turban, and gained entry to the former president's home by convincing officials, including Karzai's advisers, that he represented the Taliban leadership, based in the Pakistani city of Quetta, and wanted to discuss reconciliation.

Noone has claimed responsibility for the killing, and Taliban spokesmen have declined to discuss it.

Namatullah Ahmady, a university student who attended the burial, said Mr. Rabbani's death dashes all hope for making peace with the Taliban.

"It's finished," he said, adding that if the insurgents now say they want to reconcile, the government should say: "We're not interested."

Waqif Hakimi, a spokesman for Mr. Rabbani's political faction, Jamiat-e Islami, said only a small number of people became overly emotional.

"They were chanting against the Taliban and terrorism and other things, but it did not escalate," he said. "Some people were shouting their different slogans, but it was not the message of the party."

In Washington on Thursday, U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused Pakistan's powerful intelligence agency of backing extremists in planning and executing an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan last week and a truck bomb attack that wounded 77 American soldiers days earlier.

Pakistan rejected the American claims that it is supporting extremist attacks on American troops. Some analysts believe Pakistan seeks to bolster its influence in Afghanistan as a way to counter the regional influence of India, its longtime rival.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker was among those attending Mr. Rabbani's funeral ceremony at the presidential palace. Iran's state media said Ali Akbar Velayati, a former Iranian foreign minister and confidant of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led the Iranian delegation.

"Today we are witnessing one of the biggest and saddest events of this important political time in the history of the world," said Salahuddin Rabbani, the former president's son. He urged the Afghan government to aggressively investigate the killing.

Also, NATO forces said two service members died following a bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan on Friday. The deaths bring to 436 the number of international troops killed so far this year in Afghanistan.