KABUL - Fifteen Inter-services Intelligence-supported insurgent groups are operating against the Afghan government, the acting head of the National Directorate of Security ('NDS) told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi and the acting NDS chief, Rahmatullah Nabil, were summoned by the Wolesi Jirga to brief legislators on the investigation into the death of Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani.
The chairman of the High Peace Council was killed on Sept. 20 as a result of a suicide attack on his house in the high-security Wazir Akbar Khan diplomatic district of Kabul.

'ISI was involved in the assassination of Rabbani, Nabil alleged, blaming the Pakistan intelligence network for aiding militants' activities against the Karzai government. The Pakistan Army and ISI had invested in the groups over the past 30 years, he said, without naming the outfits.

"The absence of a proper mechanism for peace talks, lack of peace commission's trust in security personnel and confidence in terrorists were some of the factors behind the killing of Rabbani," he added.
After the completion of the investigation, they handed necessary documents to the Pakistani embassy and asked it for cooperation in detaining the masterminded behind the killing, he said, adding Pakistan responded with a statement that ran counter to all diplomatic norms.

But Pakistan's Foreign Office denied they were involve in the murder, saying the so-called documents and evidence handed by the Afghan government were based on a confessional statement from a detainee, named Hamidullah.

Afghan intelligence agents had detained some Taliban commanders who wanted to carry out terrorist activities, but they were released on a demand from the High Peace Council.
"When we arrest a person, the council tells us that we are going to create problems for the peace process and ask for their release," he concluded.

The killings of Afghan leaders would continue as long as Afghan security personal are not strengthened and equipped, Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi said. Security forces should be involved the in the peace drive to prevent such incidents, he suggested.