Kabul, Sep 20 (IANS) Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani was killed Tuesday in a bomb attack on his home here, BBC reported.


He was meeting two members of the Taliban at his home at the time of the blast, officials said. It is unclear if they were involved in the attack.

Rabbani was the chairman of the High Peace Council which leads Afghan efforts to negotiate with the Taliban.

He also led the main political opposition in the country. Reports say he may have been killed by a suicide attacker.

Rabbani was selected by President Hamid Karzai in October 2010 to head the peace council.

He was ousted as president by the Taliban in 1996. After that he became the nominal head of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, made of up mostly non-Pashtun ethnic groups.

Many members of the council are former warlords who spent years fighting the Taliban and their inclusion led to doubts as to whether it could succeed in its mission, BBC said.

Rabbani recently addressed a religious conference in Iran, where he called on Muslim scholars to speak out against suicide attacks.