Hamid Karzai Marks Anniversary of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s Assassination

Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s former president, marked the anniversary of Ahmad Shah Massoud’s assassination and called him a “heroic mujahid and patriot.” He said Massoud was worthy of respect because of his jihad, his efforts to free the country and his presence among the people.

In a post, Karzai also called for the commemoration of all Afghanistan’s martyrs.

Ahmad Shah Massoud was one of Afghanistan’s leading military and political figures and the country’s former defence minister. He fought at various times against Soviet forces, communist governments and later the Taliban administration. In the 1990s, he continued resisting the Taliban as part of the Northern Alliance.

In the final years of his life, Massoud was among the opponents of the Taliban and al-Qaeda and sought to draw the international community’s attention to the situation in Afghanistan, the presence of al-Qaeda and Pakistan’s support for the Taliban. He was assassinated on 9 September 2001 in Khwaja Bahauddin district of northern Takhar province while giving an interview.

In that incident, two al-Qaeda members posing as journalists had hidden explosives in their filming equipment. Khwaja Bahauddin district is located in northeastern Afghanistan, in Takhar province, where the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud is considered one of the major events in Afghanistan’s modern history.