Islamabad, Oct 5 : Pakistan has rejected news reports that it has refused to help Afghan investigators probing the assassination of High Peace Council leader Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Former Afghan President Rabbani, who had been tasked with trying to negotiate a political end to the war in Afghanistan, was killed on September 20 by a suicide bomber who was supposedly a peace emissary sent by the Taliban leadership.

Speaking to Express 24/7, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said that Islamabad remained committed to the offers made by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani while on a brief visit to the Afghanistan following the murder of Pakistan’s “dearest friend”.

She said that there was no truth in the reports circulating in mainstream media that Pakistan had refused to cooperate with Afghan investigators in Pakistan.

Afghan intelligence officers investigating Rabbani’s assassination had said they had documentary evidence that linked the murderers to the Quetta Shura based in Balochistan’s capital.

On Tuesday, Afghan National Security head Mohammad Yasin Zia said that Pakistan had communicated its regret over not being able to extend further cooperation over the subject of Rabbani’s assassination due to the air the topic had gotten in the media, the report said.

“Today we received a message from the embassy of Pakistan saying that since this issue has arisen in media, we cannot cooperate and we apologise for that,” Zia, deputy head of the National Directorate of Security, was quoted as saying. (ANI)