KABUL - Chairman of High Peace Council Sallahuddin Rabbani on Tuesday said the killing of political leaders and council members could not derail the ongoing peace process in Afghanistan.
Rabbani and some family members of the late Maulvi Arsala Rahmani were invited to the Senate (upper house of parliament) to offer fateha.

Rahmani, a senate member and head of prisoners' committee in the High Peace Council, was assassinated last Sunday by an unidentified gunman in the 3rd police district of Kabul.
The Mullah Dadullah Front, a Taliban faction, claimed responsibility for the murder of Rahmani, who hailed from the Urgon district of southeastern Paktika province.

After the fateha, Rabbani addressed the senate and described Rahmani's death as a big loss for both the council and the upper house of parliament.

"The enemies of Afghanistan think peace will not come to the country if political leaders are assassinated, but they are wrong," remarked Rabbani, whose father and former chief negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani was murdered in September 2011.

"Disputes are eliminated by dialogue. Anti-government armed groups would not succeed in achieving their goals through the insurgency," he added.

Another member of the council, Maulvi Abdul Hakim Mujahidin, addressing the gathering on behalf of Rahmani's family, said the deceased was a scholar and a patriot who struggled to bringing peace to the country.
Rahmani, the former deputy leader of Harakat-i-Islami Afghanistan, started jihad (holy war) against the Soviet invasion in southern provinces of the country.

Senate Chairman Fazal Hadi Muslimyar said all members of the upper house were ready to work with the council for bringing peace to Afghanistan. (Pajhwok)