KABUL - Gunmen shot dead a top Afghan peace negotiator in the capital Kabul on Sunday, dealing another blow to the country's attempts to negotiate a peace deal with the Taliban. Maulvi Arsala Rahmani, 68, was one of the most senior and important members on Afghanistan's High Peace Council, set up by President Hamid Karzai two years ago to liaise with the insurgents. "He (Rahmani) was stuck in heavy traffic when another car beside him opened fire," said General Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul police's investigation unit. No suspect was arrested. The Taliban denied involvement in the killing of Rahmani, a defector from the Taliban who retained strong ties to the movement. "Others are involved in this," the group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said, adding: "We don't believe it's a big blow to peace efforts because the peace council has achieved nothing." Rahmani, a frail man from Paktika province with a wispy black beard and thick glasses, was on his way to meet lawmakers and other officials in a government-run media centre in the heavily barricaded diplomatic centre of Kabul when he was shot. "Rahmani's killing is a huge loss for Afghanistan but will not deter us from our efforts for lasting peace," Karzai's chief spokesman Aimal Faizi told a press briefing. NATO forces fighting in Afghanistan and the U.S. embassy in Kabul also condemned Rahmani's assassination. The 70-member High Peace Council appears to have made little progress in negotiating with the Taliban to end a war now in its 11th year.
