Posted on 03/18/2005 12:08:19 AM PST by Eurotwit
KABUL (Pajhwok Afghan News) - The Afghan government's decision to name a road in Kabul city after Mazari, a former Jihadi leader has been received with mixed feelings.
The cabinet meeting, presided by President Hamid Karzai on March 15th, concluded that a road in Kabul should be named after Shahid Abdul Ali Mazari, an ethnic Hazara leader.
Sadeq Modaber, deputy director of Administration of Affairs said the decision was made after residents in the western part of Kabul demanded that the street be named after Mazari's tenth death anniversary, and the vice president Mohammad Khalili presented the notion to members of the cabinet.
But citizens of Kabul have reacted differently to this decision. Some people say it is hard to forget the miseries and sufferings that were left after decades of war in Afghanistan.
Husnia is a twenty year old girl who lost her father in the Afghan civil war.
"The government always talks about the leaders of war and jihad and praises them; it never mentions the destructions caused by them and people killed by them."
Abdul Ali Mazari son of Haji Khodadad was born to a farmers family in the Nanwai village of Char Kant district of Balkh province, in 1948.
He joined the ranks of Mujahiddin in 1980 in the central and northern areas of Afghanistan. In 1987, he founded Hezbe Wahdate Islami and he was finally killed by the Taliban on March 12, 1995.
After his killing, Mohammad Karim Khalili remained the party leader until he became vice president of the present Afghan Government. But he resigned after a constitutional decree required all Afghan cabinet members to denounce other political affiliations.
But this is not the first time a road is named after a jihadi leader.
Sadeq Modaber says that this is not unprecedented move, and many roads are named after the martyrs.
The Afghan civil war between the years of 1992-1995 was caused by fighting between Mujahideen leaders Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Islamic Party, Borhanuddin Rabbani, leader of Jamiate Islami, Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of Junbeshi Mellie Islami, Ahmad Shah Massoud leader of Shurae Nezar and Abdul Ali Mazari, leader of Hezbe Wahdate Islami.
Experts say that it is government policy to name a road or a minaret after a party leader.
A university lecturer who did not want to reveal his name said that the decision of the government is aimed at highlighting ethnic differences of the people.
He said none of the former warlords or Jihadi figures has contributed positively to Afghanistan, and in many countries streets are named after great leaders and politicians who made positive contribution to the development of the nation.
"We should not create fake heroes for the society."
Bu the ethnic Hazara minority are happy that a street will be named after Mazari who they consider a martyr.
Forty year-old Eshaq Nazari said: "Mazari was a great leader who was killed innocently."
He said the Mazari was revered so much that when he was killed, his body was carried on the shoulders of his followers who moaned his death from Ghazni city to Behsood, to Bamiyan and to Yakawlang and to Balkh, hundred kilometers, and he was later buried after 14 days.
"This shows his popularity," he said.
Nazari thinks naming a road after Mazari is a good move and it will keep his name alive for ever.
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