A senior Afghan peace negotiator has been shot dead in Kabul, officials say.
Arsala Rahmani was a former Taliban minister and a key member
of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, which leads Afghan efforts to
negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban.
Correspondents say his death is a major blow to President
Hamid Karzai as Mr Rahmani was a key figure in reaching out to Taliban
commanders.
Last year the chief of the peace council was killed in a suicide attack.
Burhannudin Rabbani was killed by a bomb hidden in the turban
of a suicide attacker posing as a Taliban peace envoy last September.
His US-educated son, Salahuddin Rabbani, was appointed to replace him last month.
Single shot
Police say that Mr Rahmani was shot dead on Sunday morning by
an unidentified gunman while on his way to work in western Kabul, in
what was described as a carefully planned attack.
Gunmen driving a white Toyota Corolla fired a single bullet using a silencer, the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul reports.
"Mr Rahmani was shot in his heart and died instantly. His
nephew, who was also his driver, didn't even realise he had been shot,"
Kabul police chief Gen Ayub Salangi told the BBC.
There had been threats against his life in the past and
questions will be raised as to why he was travelling without an armed
bodyguard, our correspondent says.
The Taliban have denied involvement in the killing of Mr Rahmani.
An Isaf statement condemned the killing and paid tribute to
Mr Rahmani: "His decision to help make the future brighter for Afghans
serves as an inspiration to us all and his contributions will be
missed".
Mr Rahmani was one of the first senior Taliban members to
join the peace process and his death will be of concern to other Taliban
officials considering engaging with the government, a senior
presidential aide told our correspondent.
He was a critical figure in President Karzai's plans to reach
out to Taliban commanders, although it is unclear how many senior
leaders he managed to bring into the fold.
Nevertheless the president frequently consulted him to gain
insight into the inner workings and the thinking of the Taliban
leadership.
Mr Rahmani was responsible for the committee within the peace
council that considers the release of Taliban prisoners from Bagram
and other Afghan prisons.
He served as
minister of higher education in the Taliban administration that ruled
Afghanistan for five years until the US drove them from power in 2001.
But he had been politically active long before the birth of
the Taliban movement, holding political office in Afghan
administrations during the 1990s.
And he was one of several former Taliban officials removed
from a UN blacklist last July as a signal of support for Afghan peace
efforts, which meant that a travel ban and assets freeze were lifted.
Afghanistan's 70-member peace council was set up two years ago by President Karzai to open negotiations with insurgents.
The council was credited with reconciling hundreds of Taliban
field commanders, but had failed to woo any senior figures away from
the insurgency.
Although the Taliban denied sanctioning last year's killing
of Mr Rabbani, they view the Western-backed Karzai government as
illegitimate.
And in March the militants suspended parallel preliminary
peace negotiations with the United States, saying US efforts to involve
the Afghan authorities were a key stumbling block.
Source: BBC News