Abdul Ali Mazari

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

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. His father, Haji Khudadad, and his brother, Haji Mohammad Nabi, were also killed in the war.

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.[9]

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 Pashtun warlord 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.[10]

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 and the Pashtun Ittihad-i Islami of warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, supported by Saudi Arabia.[10][11][12] 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. In June 1992, the Hezbe Wahdat and the Ittihad-i Islami engaged in violent street battles against each other. With the support of Saudi Arabia,[11] Sayyaf's forces repeatedly attacked western suburbs of Kabul resulting in heavy civilian casualties. Likewise, Mazari's forces were also accused of attacking civilian targets in the west.[13] Mazari acknowledged taking Pashtun civilians as prisoners, but defended the action by saying that Sayyaf's forces took Hazaras first.[14] Mazari's group started cooperating with Hekmatyar's group from January 1993.[15]

Shrine of Abdul Ali Mazari in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh province

On March 12, 1995, the Taliban leader Mullah Burjan requested a personal meeting with Mazari and a delegation from the Islamic Wahdat Central Party (Abuzar, Ekhlaasi, Eid Mohammad Ibrahimi Behsudi, Ghassemi, Jan Mohammad, Sayed Ali Alavi, Bahodari, and Jan Ali) in Chahar Asiab, near Kabul.[16] On their arrival, the group were abducted and tortured. The following day Mazari was executed and his body was found in a district of Ghazni. The Taliban issued a statement that Mazari had attacked the Taliban guards while being flown to Kandahar. Later his body and those of his companions were handed over to Hezb-e Wahdat, mutilated and showed signs of torture. Mazari's body was carried on foot from Ghazni to Mazar-i-Sharif in the north (at the time under the control of his ally Abdul Rashid Dostum) all across the Hazara lands in heavy snow by his followers over a period of forty days. Hundreds of thousands attended his funeral in Mazar-i Sharif. Mazari was officially named a Martyr for National Unity of Afghanistan by President Ashraf Ghani in 2016.[5]

• Hezbe Wahdat
• List of Hazara people

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Abdul Ali Mazari.

• Tabaro-Baghe-Gole-Sorkh – Poetry about Abdul Ali Mazari at BabaMazary.blogfa.com
• Picture gallery at Picasaweb
• Biography of Abdul Ali Mazari