Prominent politicians, former Jihadi leaders and government officials on Monday commemorated Martyrs Week and the 18th anniversary of National Hero Ahmad Shah Massoud’s assassination by laying a wreath at the Minaret of Resistance in Massoud Square in Kabul.

Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Acting Defense Minister Asadullah Khalid, head of Massoud Foundation and presidential candidate Ahmad Wali Massoud, former Vice President Mohammad Yunus Qanooni and a number of former Jihadi leaders and politicians attended the ceremony at the Loya Jirga tent in Kabul. 

Mr. Abdullah said at the ceremony that the National Hero wanted peace in the country and that the Afghan forces and Afghan civilians are sacrificing their lives for this purpose.

He said the opportunity for peace in the country was lost after US President Donald Trump’s decision to call off negotiations with the Taliban.  

Massoud was assassinated by two suicide bombers posing as journalists 17 years ago. 

Ahmad Shah Massoud, son of Colonel Dost Mohammad Khan, was born in Jangalak area in Panjshir district in September 1953.

He spent his childhood days in Panjshir and started school at the age of five. As a young boy, he moved to Herat with his family and then to Kabul where he continued his studies.

Massoud enrolled at the Polytechnic University in Kabul in 1973 and at the same time received membership of the Nahzat Islami Afghanistan party. Two years later, in 1975, he led the first rebellion of Panjshir residents against the government of that time.

Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated in a suicide bombing in Khajwa Bahawuddin district in Takhar in September 2001.

The anniversary of Massoud’s death is marked annually on 9 September in the country.