View source for Mohammad Rabbani

{{Short description|Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[Mullah]]
| name                = Mohammad Rabbani<br />{{nq|محمد ربانی}}
| office              = [[Prime Minister of Afghanistan]]
| deputy              = [[Hasan Akhund]]
| leader              = [[Mullah Omar]]
| term_start          = 27 September 1996
| term_end            = 16 April 2001<br>Disputed by [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]] and<br>[[Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai]]<br>until 21 August 1997
| predecessor         = [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]]
| successor           = [[Abdul Kabir]] (acting)
| office1             = [[Deputy Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Elias |first1=Barbara |title=The Taliban Biography – Documents on the Structure and Leadership of the Taliban 1996-2002 |url=https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB295/Taliban_Structure.pdf |website=[[National Security Archive]] |publisher=[[George Washington University]] |access-date=17 June 2022}}</ref>
| term_start1         = 4 April 1996
| term_end1           = 16 April 2001
| predecessor1        = ''Office established''
| successor1          = [[Abdul Ghani Baradar]]
| leader1             = [[Mullah Omar]]
| birth_date          = 1955
| birth_place         = Pashmol, [[Kingdom of Afghanistan]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=yes|2001|04|16|1955}}
| death_place         = [[Rawalpindi]], [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]], [[Pakistan]]
| blank1              = Political affiliation
| data1               = [[Taliban]]
| occupation          = Politician, [[Taliban]] member
| resting_place       = Martyr's Cemetery, Kandahar<ref name=anc>{{cite news|title=Mohammad Rabbani|url=http://www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2001/april/apr18k2001.html|accessdate=29 September 2012|newspaper=Afghanistan News Center|date=18 April 2001|author=Kate Clark|author-link=Kate Clark (journalist)|archive-date=14 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714110516/http://www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2001/april/apr18k2001.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
}}
[[Mullah]] '''Mohammad Rabbani Akhund''' (1955 &ndash; 16 April 2001) was an [[Afghans|Afghan]] politician and one of the main leaders of the [[Taliban]] movement who served as [[Prime Minister of Afghanistan#Islamic Emirate|Prime Minister of Afghanistan]] from 1996 to 2001. He was second in power only to the supreme leader, Mullah [[Mullah Omar|Mohammed Omar]], in the Taliban hierarchy.

Rabbani fought the [[Soviet Union]] after it [[Soviet invasion of Afghanistan|invaded Afghanistan]] in 1979. When the Soviet Union [[Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan|withdrew]] from [[Afghanistan]] in 1989, he initially stopped fighting. He joined the [[Taliban]] in 1994.<ref name=Myth47980/> After [[Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)|years of civil war]], he led the Taliban guerrillas in [[Battle of Kabul (1992–1996)|the final assault]] against the capital, [[Kabul]].

He served as Prime Minister of the [[Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001)|Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan]]. There were also rumors that Mullah Rabbani and the head of the Taliban movement had serious political differences.<ref name=Myth47980>[https://books.google.com/books?id=1xyh_DBV1bMC&dq=Mullah+Mohammad+Rabbani&pg=PA479 ''An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban-Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan'']. Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn. Page 479-80.</ref> While Rabbani and the ruling [[Leadership Council of Afghanistan]] constituted the public face of the country, the important decisions were made by Mullah Omar, who resided in the southern city of [[Kandahar]].

==Early years==
Rabbani was born in 1955.<ref>{{cite web|title=Mohammad Rabbani|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/917/000112581/|publisher=NNDB|accessdate=29 September 2012}}</ref> He was from the [[Kakar]] tribe of [[Pashtuns]]. He obtained Islamic education at home in Pashmol in [[Kandahar Province]], before participating in an [[Islamic seminary]].<ref name=anc/> The [[Soviet–Afghan War|invasion of Afghanistan]] by the Soviet Union in 1979 put a stop to his education as he volunteered for the [[jihad]].

His role in the civil war ended when the [[Soviet Army]] withdrew in 1989, but other members and factions of the [[Afghan mujahidin]] fought on, first against [[Democratic Republic of Afghanistan|the Afghan communist government]] and then against each other.

It was a time of lawlessness and chaos. The communist government fell in 1992 and Afghanistan was [[Afghan Civil War (1992–1996)|fought over]] by factions of the mujahedin. [[Kandahar]] was particularly a battleground for commanders turned warlords.

Rabbani and about thirty other religious students (Taliban) decided to take the warlords on, first in the border town of [[Spin Boldak]] and then in Kandahar itself. During this period, Rabbani argued "Our concern is the establishment of an Islamic system and the elimination of unrest and cruelty from our country."<ref name=anc/>

==Fall of Kabul and creation of the Islamic Emirate==
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 Rabbani, who also commanded the forces encircling Kabul, that the Taliban were ready for discussions with the [[Islamic State of Afghanistan|government]] of President [[Burhanuddin Rabbani]].

Originally a Taliban idea endorsed by Pakistani Prime Minister [[Nawaz Sharif]] and accepted on behalf of the United Front (formerly the [[Afghan Northern Alliance|Northern Alliance]]) by Burhanuddin Rabbani in early January 1998, the proposal took shape as a proposed commission of ulema, or religious scholars, to settle the Afghan conflict in the light of the [[shariah]]. However, no progress was made until, once again, Sharif intervened two months later, in March, by inviting Mullah Rabbani, now head of the Taliban shura in Kabul, to [[Islamabad]] and obtained from him an agreement in principle for the convening of a steering committee in preparation for the ulema commission.

On 9 April, the United Nations Special Envoy went to Kabul and discussed with Mullah Rabbani and other Taliban leaders how to proceed with the idea of a steering committee for preparations for an ulema meeting. With this perceived shift in the Taliban's strategy, Mestiri had moved to Kabul to tie up other details. This would explain in large measure the Taliban's removal of heavy weaponry from areas surrounding Kabul very recently. But no sooner had Mullah Rabbani given this assurance to the visiting UN envoy, the religious leadership based in Kandahar rejected talks with Kabul, scuttling Mestiri's efforts and continuing [[Afghan Civil War (1996-2001)|the civil war]].

On 26 September 1996 Taliban forces set up an interim government under Mohammed Rabbani, and Afghanistan was declared a complete [[Islamic emirate]] under [[Sharia law]]. It was Rabbani who gave the dramatic press conference from the [[Arg (Kabul)|presidential palace]] claiming victory.

Rabbani was the Taliban's second most powerful man and the leader of the moderates in the organization.<ref name=frontline01>{{cite journal |last=Rashid |first=Ahmed|title=Inside the Taliban|journal=Frontline|date=2001 |volume=18|issue=22 |url= http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1822/18220210.htm |accessdate=29 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20061021154151/http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1822/18220210.htm |archive-date=21 October 2006}}</ref> However, there were differences between him and Mullah Omar regarding the influence of the Arabs and the need to establish a proper consultative government mechanism. Rabbani's power base was [[Jalalabad]] and he was not dependent on the Kandahari group for political support within the Taliban.<ref name=frontline01/>

==Quotes about Osama Bin Laden==
He declared to the international community that his government did not support terrorism.

:We will not allow anyone to perform any terrorist acts inside or from Afghanistan against anyone.  We are a free country where Osama is living as a guest.  This is the reality and it is up to the world to accept it.

Mullah Rabbani noted that [[Osama bin Laden]] had taken up residence when Afghanistan was under the control of the previous regime.  He also maintained that there was not sufficient evidence linking him to [[1998 US embassy bombings|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.

==Decline and death==
Rabbani died in a military hospital in [[Rawalpindi]], [[Pakistan]], of liver cancer on 16 April 2001.<ref name=nytimes01>{{cite news|last=Dugger|first=Celia W.|title=Muhammad Rabbani, Advocate of Some Moderation in Taliban|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/20/world/muhammad-rabbani-advocate-of-some-moderation-in-taliban.html|accessdate=29 September 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=20 April 2001}}</ref> According to a press release in Islamabad:

:Mullah Mohammad Rabbani was one of the main founders of the Movement and greatly contributed to peace and security in our country. His service to Islam is unforgettable. His demise is an irreparable loss.

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.<ref name=nytimes01/> He was buried in the Taliban's Martyr's Cemetery in Kandahar.<ref name=anc>{{cite news|title=Mohammad Rabbani|url=http://www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2001/april/apr18k2001.html|accessdate=29 September 2012|newspaper=Afghanistan News Center|date=18 April 2001|author=Kate Clark|author-link=Kate Clark (journalist)|archive-date=14 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714110516/http://www.afghanistannewscenter.com/news/2001/april/apr18k2001.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Regarding him as somewhat of a moderate, members of the opposition voiced fears that hardliners within the Taliban would strengthen their hold on power following Rabbani's death.<ref name=nytimes01/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Prime Minister of Afghanistan]]|years=1996–2001<br><span style="font-size: 90%;">Disputed by [[Gulbuddin Hekmatyar]]<br>and  [[Abdul Rahim Ghafoorzai]]<br>until 1997<br>Reason for dispute:<br>[[Afghan Civil War (1996–2001)]]</span>}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Abdul Kabir]]<br>{{small|(acting)}}}}
{{s-end}}

{{Prime ministers of Afghanistan}}
{{Taliban}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabbani, Mohammad}}
[[Category:1955 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:Pashtun people]]
[[Category:Taliban founders]]
[[Category:Taliban government ministers of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Prime ministers of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:Politicians from Kandahar Province]]
[[Category:Deaths from liver cancer in Pakistan]]