Abdul Ali Mazari

Abdul Ali Mazari (Persian: عبدلعلی مزاری‎‎) (1947 – March 1995) was a political leader of the Hezbe Wahdat during and following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Mazari was an ethnic Hazara, and believed the solution to the internal divisions in Afghanistan was in a federal system of governance, with each ethnic group having specific constitutional rights.

Abdul Ali Mazari was born in the village of Charkent, south of the northern city of Mazari Sharif. Hence, the surname, "Mazari". He began his primary schooling in theology at the local school in his village, then went to Mazari Sharif, and later to Qom in Iran, and to Najaf in Iraq.

Political life

Simultaneously with the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Red Army, Abdul Ali Mazari returned to his birthplace and gained a prominent place in the anti-Soviet resistance movement. During the first years of the resistance, he lost his young brother, Mohammed Sultan, during a battle against the Soviet-backed forces. He soon lost his sister and other members of his family in the resistance. His uncle, Mohammad Ja'afar, and his son, Mohammad Afzal, were imprisoned and killed by the Soviet-backed Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He also lost his father, Haji Khudadad, and his brother, Haji Mohammad Nabi, in the rebellion and resistance movement.

Hezbe Wahdat

Abdul Ali Mazari was one of the founding members and the first leader of the Hezbe Wahdat ("Unity Party"). In the first party congress in Bamiyan, he was elected leader of the Central Committee and in the second congress, he was elected Secretary General. Mazari's initiative led to the creation of the Jonbesh-e Shamal or (Northern Movement), in which the country's most significant military forces joined ranks with the rebels, leading to a coup d'état and the eventual downfall of the Communist regime in Kabul.

Civil War

After the fall of Kabul, the Afghan political parties agreed on a peace and power-sharing agreement, the Peshawar Accords. The Peshawar Accords created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed an interim government for a transitional period to be followed by general elections. According to Human Rights Watch:

The sovereignty of Afghanistan was vested formally in the Islamic State of Afghanistan, an entity created in April 1992, after the fall of the Soviet-backed Najibullah government. ... With the exception of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezb-e Islami, all of the parties... were ostensibly unified under this government in April 1992. ... Hekmatyar's Hezbe Islami, for its part, refused to recognize the government for most of the period discussed in this report and launched attacks against government forces but the shells and rockets fell everywhere in Kabul resulting in many civilian casualties.

The Hezbe Wahdat initially took part in the Islamic State and held some posts in the government. Soon, however, conflict broke out between the Hazara Hezbe Wahdat of Mazari, the Wahabbi Pashtun Ittihad-i Islami of Warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf supported by Saudi Arabia. The Islamic State's defense minister Ahmad Shah Massoud tried to mediate between the factions with some success, but the cease fire remained only temporary. As of June 1992, the Hezbe Wahdat and the Ittihad-i Islami engaged in violent street battles against each other. With the support of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan Sayyaf's forces repeatedly attacked South Western suburbs of Kabul resulting in heavy civilian casualties.

Taliban era and death

On March 12, 1995, the Taliban arrested him along with his five companions in Chaharasyab, near Kabul. The following day Mazari was executed and his body was found in a district of Ghazni aged 49. The Taliban issued a statement that Mazari had attacked the Taliban guards while being flown to Qandahar. Later his body and those of his companions were handed over to Hezb-e Wahdat, all mutilated and showed signs of torture. Mazari's body was carried on foot from Ghazni in the west to Mazar-e-Sharif in the north of Afghanistan, all across the Hazara lands in heavy snowy winter, by his followers over a period of forty days . Hundreds of thousands attended his funeral in Mazar-i Sharif. Mazari officially named as the Martyr for National Unity of Afghanistan by President Ghani.