DUSHANBE, September 26, 2011, Asia-Plus -- The Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan (IRP) held a memorial service on September 23 in Dushanbe for slain former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, RFE/RL''s Tajik Service reports.

Several hundred people, including dignitaries and guests who will take part in the IRP''s upcoming annual congress, participated in the service for Rabbani, who was an ethnic Tajik.

Rabbani, 71, was killed on September 20 by a suicide bomber in his house in Kabul.

IRP Chairman Muhiddin Kabiri recalled Rabbani''s role in helping Tajik refugees during the Tajik Civil War (1992-1997).

He said Rabbani was like “a father” to hundreds of thousands of Tajik refugees who lives as “guests of Rabbani” in Afghanistan for several years.

Kabiri said he met with Rabbani last week in Tehran and invited him to attend the IRPT congress that opens on September 24 as a guest of honor.

Meanwhile, a state delegation headed by Shukurjon Zuhurov, chairman of the Majlisi Namoyandagon (the lower house of the Tajik parliament), attended Rabbani''s funeral in Kabul on September 23.

Rabbani served as Afghan president from 1992-1996 and was the head of Afghanistan''s High Peace Council when he was killed.

He was one of the founding leaders of the mujahedin who fought against Soviet forces after they invaded in 1979.