The Haqqani network is currently denying involvement in the Rabbani assassination. Claiming responsibility now would create problems for their handlers, and paste an even bigger target on their organization. In any case, Afghanistan has presented Pakistan with what appears to be highly specific evidence of the Pakistani origin of the attack — even phone numbers.
All the better for Pakistan to track down the plotters, or perhaps to tip them off, as has also been known to happen depending on which way the wind is blowing in Islamabad. “Afghanistan says Rabbani’s killer was Pakistani,” by Hamid Shalizi and Omar Sobhani for Reuters, October 2:
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan said on Sunday that the suicide bomber who posed as a Taliban envoy to assassinate Afghan peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani was a Pakistani national.
Tensions between the neighbours have been rising amid allegations from Afghan officials that Pakistan and its powerful ISI intelligence agency masterminded the former president’s September 20 killing and are seeking to destabilise Afghanistan.
Hundreds of Afghans took to the streets of Kabul on Sunday to condemn recent shelling of border towns by Pakistan’s army and the killing of Rabbani, accusing Pakistan of trying to sabotage his attempts to end the 10-year war.
An investigative delegation established by President Hamid Karzai said evidence and a confession provided by a man involved in Rabbani’s killing had revealed that the bomber was from Chaman and the assassination had been plotted in Quetta — both on the Pakistani side of the border.
“It proves that the assassination of Professor Rabbani was hatched in Quetta and the man who carried out the suicide bombing is a Pakistani national,” the delegation, led by Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, said in a statement issued by the presidential palace.
“The documents and evidence in hand, details of other accomplices and their phone numbers have been handed over to Pakistan to make arrests.”…