KABUL: Gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul on Sunday, police said, dealing another blow to the country’s attempts to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban.
Maulvi Arsala Rahmani was one of the most senior members on Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to liaise with insurgents.
“He (Rahmani) was stuck in heavy traffic when another car beside him opened fire,” said General Mohammad Zahir, head of the investigations unit for Kabul police.
The Taliban denied involvement in the killing of Rahmani, a Taliban defector but with strong ties to the movement.
“Others are involved in this,” its spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
Rahmani was on his way to a meeting with lawmakers and other officials in a government-run media centre in the heavily barricaded diplomatic centre of Kabul when he was shot dead.
The Taliban said his death would not alter peace talks. “We don’t believe it’s a big blow to peace efforts because the peace council has achieved nothing,” Mujahid told Reuters.
The 70-member High Peace Council appears to have made little progress in negotiating with the Taliban to end the war now in its eleventh year. (Reuters)