Chaos and confrontation at the graveside appeared to bear out fears that the killing, the most high-profile since the 2001 overthrow of the Taleban, would re-open fractures from Afghanistan’s bitter civil war and make peace more elusive.
A former intelligence chief was blocked from the burial site by guards loyal to President Hamid Karzai — blamed by some Rabbani supporters for his death — a microphone snatched from another political heir as he tried to address mourners, and live television cover abruptly cut as speeches got sharper.
“A terrorist was allowed to enter and kill our leader but we are not allowed to attend his burial,” Amrullah Saleh, who served as head of the National Directorate of Security, told the crowds massed at the heavily guarded gates.
Saleh forced his way past the guards, warned that he could bring the government down in hours, and called on Rabbani’s supporters to prepare to take to the streets.
“The government doesn’t have the right to talk with enemies anymore. Nothing will come of so much talking. Just wait for a call. Very soon we will come to the streets,” he said, referring to Karzai’s push to negotiate with the Taleban.
Dozens of supporters of Rabbani, a professor, president and fighter, hurled rocks and chanted angry slogans after security forces stopped them getting near to the grave, and fired warning shots into the air to disperse the swelling crowd.
As tensions flared, nervous guards capitulated and opened the large iron gates. Hundreds of people poured into the burial compound, pushing, shoving and clambering their way through the throngs of mourners to touch Rabbani’s coffin.
They chanted “death to Karzai, death to America,” although the President was not at the burial to hear.
Live television broadcasts were cut when scuffles got worse, and the most controversial comments began.
After prayers at the presidential palace, a coffin covered by the black, red and green national flag was taken — down heavily guarded and nearly empty streets — for burial on a hilltop in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, Kabul’s diplomatic enclave.
Rabbani’s killing at his Kabul home on Tuesday by a bomber claiming to be carrying a message of peace from the Taleban leadership has brought fears of dangerous divisions in Afghans fighting the Taleban-led insurgency.
He was the most prominent surviving leader of the ethnic Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance of fighters and politicians.
In recent years he had formed an uneasy alliance with President Hamid Karzai, who comes from the largely Pashtun south, but the rapprochement and the push for talks with the Taleban were not supported by all of his old allies.
Rabbani’s protege and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, one of Karzai’s most long-standing critics, wept as the coffin was taken up the hill and chided his government when a microphone he was using was switched off.
“Today we bury our respected leader but we will not keep silent,” he shouted, prompting a roar from the crowd. “Karzai has to answer the people and explain who the killer was.” Karzai, who chose Rabbani to head the High Peace Council last October, cut short his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York to return for the burial.
He has come under intense criticism from political opponents who say he instructed Rabbani to meet with the assassin. Karzai’s office has said he was not involved.
Rabbani’s killing came after a string of deaths of other key northerners, including powerful police chief General Dawood Dawood and Kunduz provincial governor Mohammad Omar.
As violence spirals — civilian deaths are at record levels and the insurgency is spreading fast in once peaceful areas -— a growing number of Afghans fear the largely Pashtun Taleban are picking off potential leaders from other ethnic groups.
But amid the anger and chaos, some supporters and political allies called for a peaceful burial on Friday.
“We will avenge the death of our leader but today, please be calm,” said a man using a loudspeaker on one of Kabul’s main streets, where car windscreens and walls were covered with posters bearing the face of Rabbani.
