Ahmad Shah Massoud

Born in the village of Dzhangalak - Panjshir Gorge north of Kabul in a Tajik family ^[4] . He studied at the Kabul Lyceum Istiklol ( Pers. اﺳﺘﻘﻼﻝ - "Independence").

In 1973, he entered the Kabul Polytechnic Institute (faculty of construction and architecture), but after the coup of Prince Daud in 1973, he emigrated to Pakistani Peshawar , where he joined the Islamist opposition led by Rabbani .

In 1975, he took part in the unsuccessful Panjshir uprising against Daud's dictatorship ^[5] . Ahmad Shah, wounded in his leg, hid in a corn field and, by happy coincidence, escaped arrest - the soldiers passed literally next to him.

A veteran of the 1979-1989 Afghan war . Against him, the Soviet troops undertook 9 unsuccessful military operations (including the Panjshir operation ), after which he received the nickname of Lev Panjshir .

Known by the fact that the only commander of the Mujahideen went in 1982 (the beginning of the rule of Andropov ) on an armistice with the Soviet troops. Valentine Falin recalled:

I knew from military intelligence officers that Masud was not averse to heading the government in Kabul and believed that if he had free hands, then after 6-8 months in Afghanistan there will be peace. ^[6]

Ahmad Shah Massoud in 1988 married the daughter of his closest assistant. Six children were born from marriage, including one son, Ahmad ^[7] , who lived in Tajikistan ^[8] and attended grade 5 in the Iranian school in Dushanbe , then in the Iranian city of Mashhad ^[3] , then moved to England to study for magistracy. As of 2016, Ahmad Masoud Jr. lives in Kabul .

Together with Rabbani, he led the Islamic Society of Afghanistan Party, in the early 1990s advocating the creation of a separate non-Pashtun state in northern Afghanistan .

After the withdrawal of the Soviet army from Afghanistan in 1989, he headed the de facto independent 2.5 million northeastern region of Afghanistan populated by Tajiks ( Parwan , Takhar , Baglan , Badakhshan provinces ) with Taloukan’s capital, known as “Masudistan” , which had its own government, money and a well-armed army of up to 60 thousand people.

In 1992, the army of Masud and Dostum occupied Kabul and overthrew the government of Najibullah , and Masud became the minister of defense. His confrontation began with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar , who stood on the outskirts of the capital.

In January 1994, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, already in alliance with General Dostum, began a military confrontation with Ahmad Shah Massoud for control of Kabul. As a result of shelling of the capital, about 4 thousand civilians were killed ^[9] .

After the Taliban captured the central government in Afghanistan in 1996, Masudistan was revived and became part of the Northern Alliance , which was led by Masood.

Since 1999, he has worked closely with the CIA ^[10] .

On September 9, 2001, an assassination attempt was made on Masud during an interview - the suicide bombers disguised themselves as journalists by hiding explosives in a video camera. Ahmad Shah Masood died of his injuries the next morning, September 10 ^[11] . According to some allegations, Ahmad Shah Masood was eliminated on the initiative of bin Laden , due to the recruitment in his entourage by US intelligence agencies of the perpetrators of the attempt to eliminate bin Laden ^[12] . Soon, as a result of the offensive of the Northern Alliance and the counterterrorist operation of the USA and allies, the power of the Taliban in Afghanistan ended, and the Masudistan ceased to exist.

• 1980 - less than 1000 ^[13]
• 1981 - 2200 ^[14]
• 1984 - 5000 ^[13]
• 1989 - 13,000 ^{[15] [16]}
• 1996 - 60,000 ^[17]

Fluent in Dari , Pashto and French .

Appearance

External data: medium height. He preferred to dress in light colors, especially cream and blue tones. He wore a white shirt, waistcoat, pants, hat- pakol , wrapped in a traditional scarf.

Family

Of the six brothers Ahmad Shah Masud, the younger brother Ahmad Zia Masoud (born May 1, 1956 ) was the Ambassador of the Republic of Afghanistan to Russia from 2002–2004, and since 2004 he has been the First Vice-President of Afghanistan ^[18] , ^[19] , and another brother, Ahmad Wali Masood, is the ambassador of the Republic of Afghanistan to the UK .

Opinions

When I met with Ahmad Shah in 1998, we talked with him for a long time. He told me an amazing thing: “I, he says, could have fought differently with you. I could shoot down your passenger aircraft. I did not shoot down passenger aircraft. I fought with you, as I fought. ”

- Ruslan Aushev ^[20]

Army General Valentin Varennikov testified that Afghan President Najibullah insisted on eliminating Ahmad Shah, however V.I. Varennikov himself opposed this:

I told him that this can not be done. I argued to him that, unlike other leaders, Ahmad Shah Massoud is a completely different figure, this is a statesman. The people follow him, the people believe in him, he enjoys enormous prestige in the north of the country where the Tajiks live. And he is not blinded, not embittered, you can talk and negotiate with him normally. ^[21]

General Igor Rodionov , commander of the 40th army in 1985-1986, recalled:

The worst situation was in the Panjshir Gorge ... commanded by the famous Ahmad Shah Masood ... Masood, of course, a talented and very capable commander. Then, in the 80s, he successfully repelled more than one of our offensive. ^[22]

• Dame V.V. Ahmad Shah Masud // Krugosvet
•   “The Secret Stories”: Secrets of the Afghan War. The Lion Hunt ” - a documentary on the REN TV channel
• Ahmad Shah Massoud
• Afghanistan after Massoud