Mullah Mohammad Rabbani Akhund (1955 – 16 April 2001) was an Afghan politician and one of the main leaders of the Taliban movement who served as Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
[2] While Rabbani and the ruling Leadership Council of Afghanistan constituted the public face of the country, the important decisions were made by Mullah Omar, who resided in the southern city of Kandahar.
However, no progress was made until, once again, Sharif intervened two months later, in March, by inviting Mullah Rabbani, now head of the Taliban shura in Kabul, to Islamabad and obtained from him an agreement in principle for the convening of a steering committee in preparation for the ulema commission.
On 9 April, the United Nations Special Envoy went to Kabul and discussed with Mullah Rabbani and other Taliban leaders how to proceed with the idea of a steering committee for preparations for an ulema meeting.
But no sooner had Mullah Rabbani given this assurance to the visiting UN envoy, the religious leadership based in Kandahar rejected talks with Kabul, scuttling Mestiri's efforts and continuing the civil war.
He also maintained that there was not sufficient evidence linking him to terrorist bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and that, at any rate, bin Laden was no longer able to carry out activities from Afghan territory.
[6] According to a press release in Islamabad: Rabbani's body was repatriated to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar by a UN plane, permitted to operate on humanitarian grounds despite the air embargo against the Taliban Movement.