Mullah Mohammad Rabbani Akhund was an Afghan politician and one of the main leaders of the Taliban movement who served as Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
12 Facts About Mohammad Rabbani
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Mohammad Rabbani was second in power only to the supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, in the Taliban hierarchy.
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Mohammad Rabbani served as Prime Minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
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Mohammad Rabbani obtained Islamic education at home in Pashmol in Kandahar Province, before participating in an Islamic seminary.
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When United Nations Special Envoy Mehmoud Mestiri resumed his peace parleys in Afghanistan in March 1996, he had been assured by the political leadership of the Taliban, represented by Mullah Mohammad Rabbani, who commanded the forces encircling Kabul, that the Taliban were ready for discussions with the government of President Burhanuddin Mohammad Rabbani.
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Mohammad Rabbani was the Taliban's second most powerful man and the leader of the moderates in the organization.
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Mohammad Rabbani declared to the international community that his government did not support terrorism.
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Mullah Mohammad Rabbani noted that Osama bin Laden had taken up residence when Afghanistan was under the control of the previous regime.
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Mohammad Rabbani maintained that there was not sufficient evidence linking him to terrorist bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and that, at any rate, bin Laden was no longer able to carry out activities from Afghan territory.
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Mohammad Rabbani died in a military hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, of liver cancer on 16 April 2001.
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Mohammad Rabbani's body was repatriated to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar by a UN plane, permitted to operate on humanitarian grounds despite the air embargo against the Taliban Movement.
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Mohammad Rabbani was buried in the Taliban's Martyr's Cemetery in Kandahar.