DUSHANBE, September 23, 2011, Asia-Plus -- By President Emomali Rahmon’s order Chairman of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan’s lower chamber of parliament) Shukurjon Zuhurov and Olim Salimzoda, the head of the Majlisi Namoyandagon Committee on International Affairs, today morning departed for the Afghan capital Kabul to attend the funeral ceremony of ex-Afghan President Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was assassinated in a suicide attack on Tuesday evening.

High Peace Council Chairman and leader of the Jamiat-e-Islami Party Prof. Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated along with three members of peace panel in a suicide attack on his residence in Kabul on September 20.

Three days of mourning have been announced in Afghanistan for Mr. Rabbani, who is to be given a state funeral.

Some reports say that he will be buried in his home province of Badakhshan in the north-east, others that it will be on a hilltop overlooking his Kabul home.

Khaama Press reports a commission has been signed for the burial ceremony.  The family and relatives of Burhanuddin Rabbani along with the commission has decided to schedule the burial ceremony on Friday.  The member of the Jamiat-e-Islami Party was quoted as saying the late leader might be buried in hilltop in Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan or inside Kabul University campus.

The death of Mr. Rabbani is a severe blow for the Afghan president and analysts say it could be the biggest setback for peace in Afghanistan for years.

According to the BBC, Ahmad Wali Masoud, a prominent politician and brother of the late resistance hero Ahmad Shah Masoud, said Rabbani''s death was a catastrophe that could change Afghanistan''s political landscape.  “Since he could not do it, I''m sure no one else can make peace with the Taliban," he told reporters. "Some people believed he could do something, but now with his death, the (hope of) peace is dead as well.”

No group including the Taliban militants have so far claimed responsibility behind the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

No group has said it carried out the attack but Afghan intelligence officials say they believe it must have taken months to plan, the BBC reports.

The Taliban deny killing former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani.  The BBC says the Taliban on Wednesday issued their first public statement on the killing, saying they did not want to comment.