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“What I want to say is that he was never an extremist, neither in his private nor political life. He believed that a modern moderate Islam could work in Afghanistan. He said that the extreme left or right failed in Afghanistan, since both had neglected the needs of the people. Therefore, we could not govern Afghanistan like any traditional Muslim country.” -Ahmad Wali Massoud regarding Ahmed Massoud Shah of the Northern Alliance. In 1996, funded financially and backed morally by their allies in Pakistan, the Taliban (”Students of Islamic Knowledge Movement”) emerged as the prominent force in Afghanistan after the...

War brutalizes man, every afghan bears living testimony to this. If the landscape of Afghanistan bears the craters of the endless war, the political and military leadership in Afghanistan also carries war's indelible scars. It is important never to lose sight of this. Ahmed Shah Mas'ud was born to an army family in 1953 in the Panjshir Valley north of the Afghan capital Kabul. His father was a colonel in the Afghan Army and enrolled his son at Kabul's Lycee Istiqlal High School. Upon graduation Mas'ud joined Kabul's Polytechnic Institute. In 1973 King Zahir Shah was deposed and exiled by...

WASHINGTON, Nov 01, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Already divided between north and south, war-ravaged Afghanistan appears to be moving toward a more permanent partition.The process of partition began long before the extremist Taliban militia was formed in 1994. According to some analysts it started with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.Created as a buffer zone between British India and the former Russian empire, Afghanistan survived the departure of the British from the subcontinent in 1947 because the fear of Soviet communism kept its various factions together.The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and its disgraceful ...

Friday November 2 12:09 AM ET Report: Taliban Arrest Pro-King Afghans, Plan Execution ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban have arrested 25 followers of tribal leader Hamid Karzai, a supporter of ex-King Zahir Shah, and plan to execute some on Friday, Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported. ``It is expected that some of the important people of those arrested may be hanged later today in Kandahar though it is possible that they may be hanged in Uruzgan,'' AIP quoted a Taliban source as saying. The followers were arrested by the Taliban Thursday during a chase to try to hunt ...

There's no shortage of violence in the process of establishing a new, multi-ethnic governmentBy Ahmed Rashid, Kabul> On March 23 the first, long-awaited step in a genuine political process to choose a new government in Afghanistan after 24 years of war kicks off, with the publishing of the rules and procedures for the loya jirga, or grand tribal council. Millions of Afghan people are placing their future hopes for peace and stability on the meeting of the loya jirga, which former King Zahir Shah will open in June. Rival warlords--including those with posts in the interim government--are also preparing, trying...