Former Afghan interim president and ex Jihadi leader Sibghatullah Mujaddadi was buried in Ashiqan Arifan in Kabul on Tuesday after he died on Monday night following a long illness.

A special prayer ceremony was also held for Mujaddadi at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday. Attending the ceremony were government leaders, including President Ashraf Ghani, former Jihadi leaders, politicians and foreign dignitaries.

Addressing the ceremony, Ghani said Mujaddadi, who died at 93, had been a teacher to all the people and said his political achievements had been significant. 

“He had very specific characteristics. First of all, he was my teacher, from his school time up to the last days of his life, he was a teacher to all the Afghan people. When we were at Istiqlal high school, when someone was saying that Hazrat Mujaddadi has come, then we all would go after him to take a photo with him,” said Ghani.

After the ceremony at the Presidential Palace Mujaddadi’s body was then taken to the Ghazi Stadium where another prayer ceremony was held. 

“He was an encouraging and kind character. He was a character who sees all the people as his sons, brothers and daughters,” Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said. 

Mujaddadi’s family members said peace was one of the deceased’s main wishes but that he did not live long enough to see his dream realized.

“He was always saying that he was very sad that he had not reached his wish. He spent his whole life serving Afghanistan, but the peace and security did not come,” Esmatullah Mujaddadi, son of Mujaddadi said. 

Mujaddadi is survived by six sons. 

Who Was Mujaddadi

Sibghatullah Mojaddedi was born on 21 April 1925. He served as interim president after the fall of Mohammad Najibullah’s government from April 28, 1992 to June 28,1992. 

On 28 June 1992, former president Burhanuddin Rabbani took office and the power transited from Mujaddadi to Rabbani.

Then Afghanistan witnessed civil war from 1992 and 1996. The Taliban who emerged in 1994 as one of the prominent factions in the Afghan Civil War took over Kabul on 1996 - Mujaddadi then went to Pakistan. 

After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Mujaddedi returned to Afghanistan from Pakistan and became chairman of the Loya Jirga.

Following the appointment of Hamid Karzai as interim president at the Bonn Conference on 2001, Mujaddadi established good relations with him and a few times called Karzai his son.

In the second Afghan presidential elections in 2009, Mujaddadi supported Karzai.

He was the founder of the Afghan National Liberation Front and served as the chairman of the 2003 Loya Jirga, the Grand Assembly, that approved Afghanistan’s new Constitution after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

“In recent years, he was taking good calculated decisions in most of the important issues and was sharing his views,” Assadullah Khalid, the acting defense minister said.

In 2005, he was appointed chairman of the Meshrano Jirga, the Upper House of Parliament, and was reappointed as a member in 2011.

He also served on the Afghan High Peace Council. Mujaddadi was considered a moderate Muslim leader.

“He did a lot for Afghanistan and peace in the last 10 years,” Hekmat Khalil Karzai, former deputy foreign minister said.

But on 2013, when Karzai refused to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) between Kabul and Washington, Mujaddadi’s relationship with Karzai deteriorated. 

Mujaddadi urged Karzai to sign the BSA, but Karzai refused and did not take his advice.

“If you do not sign, we will become sad. It is the demand of the Afghan nation that the agreement be signed promptly,” Mujaddadi said at the time. 

For the 2014 Presidential Elections, Mujaddadi supported President Ashraf Ghani and he had  maintained good relations with Ghani. 

Mujaddedi studied Islamic Law and Jurisprudence at al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt.