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KABUL, Afghanistan – Hundreds of people on Monday mourned the death of a formerhigh-ranking Taliban official who had reconciled with the Afghangovernment and was trying to bring peace to his homeland. A gunman in a car assassinated Arsala Rahmani on Sunday, dealing apowerful blow to the fragile, U.S.-backed effort to negotiate apolitical resolution to the more than decade-long war. It was the second killing of a prominent member of thegovernment-appointed peace council set up to reach out toinsurgents. In September 2011, former Afghan President BurhanuddinRabbani, the counci's head, was assassinated in his Kabul home by asuicide bomber posing as a peace emissary from the Taliban. A military honor guard carried Rahmani's coffin, covered in a blackcloth with verses of the Quran embroidered on it in gold, to acemetery in the Afghan capital. Wreaths of flowers bore aphotograph of the slain negotiator. "We are all so sad for his death," said Shahzada Shahid, anothermember of the peace council. "Rahmani had no personal dispute with anyone who would want to killhim," Shahid said. "He was working for the peace process, securityand unity of the Afghans. ... It's been a series of killings of ourcountrymen. Elders, religious leaders, politicians, teachers,engineers and even businessmen are the victims." Police said an assassin with a silencer-equipped pistol shotRahmani, who was in his 70s, as he was riding in his car in one ofthe capital's most secure areas, near Kabul University. The gunmanfired from a white Toyota Corolla that pulled up alongsideRahmani's vehicle at an intersection. Rahmani's driver rushed himto a hospital, but he died on the way, police said. Kabul policesaid Monday that no one has been arrested. Rahmani was a former deputy minister of higher education in theTaliban regime that was ousted by the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Heeventually reconciled with the government and was appointed to aseat in the upper house of parliament before joining the council. The Taliban denied responsibility for Rahmani's killing, althoughthey had publicly threatened to target peace negotiators and othersworking with the government. The targeting of negotiators may represent divisions in themovement over peace talks. Agha Jan Motasim, a member of the Taliban's leadership council,told The Associated Press on Sunday in a telephone interview thatthe movement was split between those who want a peace settlementand others who wish to keep fighting. He lamented Rahmani's death and said the slain negotiator was a"nationalist" who the Taliban respected. Motasim himself survivedan assassination attempt in August that he said may have beencarried out by hard-liners opposed to his advocacy of a unitygovernment. Separately, a bomb exploded Monday at a market in northernAfghanistan, killing nine people, including a local official,officials said. The Ministry of Interior said the bomb went off in the morninginside a shop in Faryab province's Ghormach district. Theministry's statement said the nine dead included a council memberfrom neighboring Badghis province. On Sunday night in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan,Taliban fighters attacked at least three Afghan police compounds inMusa Qala district, said Fareed Ahmad, a spokesman for the Helmandprovincial police. In the various battles, which each lasted aboutfour hours, more than a dozen militants, an Afghan policeman and anAfghan soldier were killed. Fighting in Afghanistan has mostly been centered in the south andeast, along the border with Pakistan, but has spread to theonce-peaceful north in recent years. ___ Associated Press writer Mirwais Khan in Kandahar contributed tothis report. I am an expert from opticalfiberpatchcord.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Fiber Optic Adapter Manufacturer , Fiber Optic Splice Sleeves, Optical Fiber Splitter,and more.
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