KABUL, Feb 10: Pakistan has arrested two people in connection with last year’s assassination of a former Afghan president who was trying to broker peace with the Taliban, two Afghan government officials claimed on Friday.

The officials told AP that the two were detained in Quetta.

The police chief in Quetta and the spokesman for the region’s paramilitary Frontier Corps said they had not heard of the alleged arrests.

Relations with Pakistan soured after the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, Afghanistan’s former president and head of the government-appointed peace council.

Mr Rabbani was killed on Sept 20, 2011 in his home in Kabul by a suicide bomber posing as a peace emissary from the Taliban.

Afghan officials blamed Pakistan-based militants for the killing, which sapped hope for reconciling with the Taliban and raised fears about deteriorating security in Afghanistan just as foreign combat troops are starting to pull out.

A special commission that Afghan President Hamid Karzai appointed to investigate Mr Rabbani’s death concluded that the attack was planned in Quetta and that the primary assailant was a Pakistani citizen. The commission gave Pakistani authorities the names, addresses and phone numbers of people in Pakistan suspected of being involved in plotting the assassination.

One of the two Afghan officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive case, said two individuals were arrested in Quetta last week. The other official said the two were on the list of possible suspects handed to Pakistani authorities last year.

The assassin, who hid explosives in his turban, gained entry to Mr Rabbani’s home by convincing officials, including Mr Karzai’s advisers, that he represented the Taliban leadership and wanted to discuss reconciliation.

No one has claimed responsibility for the killing, and Taliban spokesmen have declined to discuss it.—AP