Turkey to join investigation on Rabbani assassination

Turkey will take part in a three-nation commission that will try to shed light on the Sept. 20 assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former chief of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned.

The breakthrough came at the ongoing Istanbul Forum today.

The commission, whose establishment date remained unclear, will be established separate from investigations into the assassination that will be carried by Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the tripartite body will serve for Islamabad and Kabul to share findings with each other.

Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan will also establish a mechanism through which the foreign ministers of the three countries will “come together more often, irrespective of summits such as the Istanbul Forum,” a diplomatic source told the Daily News at the summit today.

Rabbani, head of a council charged with talking to the Taliban insurgents, was killed by a bomb hidden in a turban. The assassination dealt a heavy blow to peace efforts in the war-torn country.