ONE MONTH ago a suicide bomber masquerading as a courier from the Taliban leadership assassinated Burhanuddin Rabbani, chairperson of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council. Today the council’s door is firmly closed and the future of the Afghan government’s strategy for dealing with the Taliban is in doubt. The assassination undermined confidence in the reconciliation process. But there is a danger of drawing the wrong conclusions.
President Karzai quickly blamed the Taliban leadership for the plot and his officials followed up with allegations that Pakistan’s intelligence agency had organised it. In reality, investigations to identify the mastermind have so far proved inconclusive.
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