Ahmad Shah Massoud 1953 – 2001

by Fouzieh Nabizada September 10, 2023

Who is Ahmad Shah Massoud?

Ahmad Shah Massoud was an Afghan politician and military commander. He was a powerful guerrilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989.

Saturday, September 9, (18 Sunbula) is the 22nd anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Jihadi commander. Ahmad Shah Massoud was killed on this day in an explosion in Khajwa Bahawuddin district of Takhar.

The High Council for National Reconciliation’s former chairman Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai issued public messages on X social media platform marking the day.

“Ahmad Shah Massoud was a great mujahid and patriot of our country who fought an unforgettable battle for the independence and freedom of Afghanistan up until his martyrdom,” Karzai said.

“Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was one of the wisest figures in Afghanistan, believed with all of his heart that the solution to the country’s problems lies in ensuring equal rights for all of the country’s citizens,” Abdullah said.

“Ahmad Shah Massoud was a mujahid without a doubt; he fought with the Soviet Union and did good deeds, but some differences among the parties hurt the spirit of the society,” said political analyst Sayed Moqadam Amin.

Ahmad Shah Massoud, son of Colonel Dost Mohammad Khan, was born in the Jangalak area in Panjshir district in September 1953.

He spent his childhood days in Panjshir and started school at the age of five. As a young boy he moved to Herat with his family and then to Kabul where he continued his studies.

Massoud enrolled at the Polytechnic University in Kabul in 1973 and at the same time received membership in the Nahzat Islamic Afghanistan party. Two years later, in 1975, he led the first rebellion of Panjshir residents against the government of that time.

1753 Photos Of Ahmad Shah Massoud

“He was a strong Muslim man who kept his word,” said Sayed Ishaq Gilani, head of the National Solidarity Movement of Afghanistan.

Ahmad Shah Massoud then left the university in the middle of his studies to fight the Soviet Union.

This former jihadi leader declared a truce in order to maintain peace with the Russians; this ceasefire gave Massoud the chance to establish Shura-e Nazar, or the “Nezar Council,” a coalition of Afghan Mujahideen military groups that was thought to be one of the strongest military and guerilla organizations against the Soviet Union.

“As far as I studied it, he was anti-Pakistan and did not want foreign groups to come to Afghanistan, and he was really a Muslim,” said Mohammad Matin Mohammadkhail, a military analyst.