2. Previous Functions:
Deputy Minister for Refugees during Rabbani Government,
Taliban Commander in Paktika Province
High Peace Council Member HPC 20110924

3. Biodata:
Some say Wahidyar is from Paktika Province, others claim is is from Zurmat, Paktia Province.
In February 2005 he accepted a reconciliation offer from the Afghan government, together with Abdul Hakim Mujahid, Arsallah Rahmani and Fawzi (only one name). Under the agreement, the men recognized the legitimacy of President Hamid Karzai's government in exchange for assurances that they would not face arrest by Afghan or foreign security forces. All four had fled to neighboring Pakistan after U.S. forces and Afghan militias drove the Taliban from power in late 2001,

He is a member of the High Peace Council.

Wahidyar was the conduit for the killer to meet Rabbani on the evening of 20 September 2011. He has been in NDS custody since the night of the attack. He has identified his two key contacts as senior officials from the pre-2001 Taleban government: Former deputy minister of Hajj and Awqaf, Abdul Satar, and the former director of Ariana Airways, Hamidullah Akhundzada. The latter at least, was also in Guantanamo Bay.

The blast disabled his arm, Wahidyar said, and left him deaf in one ear. He occasionally cocked his head forward as reporters asked questions. Wahidyar’s account largely dovetailed with Mr. Karzai’s, indicating that he, too, had been duped, and it raised many questions about why the High Peace Council members were so ready to trust Taliban members they did not know.

His account made clear that the senior High Peace Council members for the past four or five months were utterly committed to making contact with senior Taliban members in an effort to find a way to reach a peace agreement.

With that goal, they made contact with a man named Abdul Sattar, whom Wahidyar described as “an honest man among the Taliban.” Wahidyar, Rabbani and Mohammad Massoom Stanekzai, who leads the peace council’s secretariat, invited Sattar to Kabul and then asked him to contact the Quetta Shura, the Taliban leadership council in Pakistan. Sattar later returned with Hamidullah Akhund, a man trusted by the Taliban, Wahidyar said.

Akhund, whom Wahidyar also referred to as Akhundzada, came to Kabul twice and met both Rabbani and Stanekzai. Akhund took an audio message from Rabbani to the Quetta Shura and established a close relationship with Wahidyar, according to his account.

Referring to Akhund, Wahidyar said: “During four months we had continuous contacts with these people through Hamidullah. My number was given through secretariat of peace council, and I also got his number, and we were in contact and he was reporting to us what he did and whom he spoke with.”

Then a week ago, Akhund called and said the Quetta Shura was ready for talks with the Afghan government. At the time, Rabbani was traveling in Iran and the Arab gulf states in part to arrange for the establishment of an office for the Taliban in Qatar as a way of furthering the peace talks, Wahidyar said. Akhund said that he was not able to bring the message personally to Rabbani but that a trusted person would do so and bring messages and documents.

“When I told Stanekzai this, he got very happy,” said Wahidyar, and he instructed his staff to pick up the guest when he arrived and treat him “honorably and respectfully and bring the guest to Kabul.

A few days later, Wahidyar received a telephone call from a man in Kandahar who said he had been sent by Akhund. Wahidyar sped there, using vehicles lent by Stanekzai, who was on his way back from a quick trip to Pakistan.

The man sent by the Quetta Shura was housed in a guesthouse kept by the peace council in Kabul, and the guesthouse staff was admonished not to let him leave the grounds. The guest, whose name was Mullah Esmatullah, brought with him two audio clips: the first was for Stanekzai, and the second was for Mr. Rabbani. The first recording included a warning that only Rabbani should hear the message addressed to him.

On Monday, the day before the assassination, Wahidyar went to check on the Taliban messenger, Mr. Esmatullah. He was not in the guesthouse. Wahidyar said that he called him, and that Esmatullah said he had “gotten bored and gone out to offer prayers at a nearby mosque.”

The next day, near dusk, Wahidyar picked up  Esmatullah in his car and drove him to Mr. Rabbani’s house. They entered the house, and the secretary for  Rabbani greeted Mr. Wahidyar warmly and asked permission to have guards search the two men.

“I said, ‘Sure,’ ” said  Wahidyar, but it seemed that the guards did not search them well because moments later the bomb exploded just after the two greeted Mr. Rabbani, who was standing next to Mr. Stanekzai in a small room.

Esmatullah approached Rabbani and “embraced him, and at this time I heard an explosion,” Mr. Wahidyar said. “After that I went unconscious. I did not know what happened.” When he came to, “I saw the guy lying at my feet, and I saw his body without his head.”

Esmatullah had hidden the explosives in his turban.