Abdul Ali Mazari
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| Born: | 1946 Chahar Kint, Balkh, Afghanistan |
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| Died: | March, 1995 Somewhere in the outskirts of Ghazni |
| Occupation: | Prominent Afghan Hazara leader, Leader of Hizb e Wahdat during the Soviet-Afghan War and Afghan Civil War |
| Lured for negotiations and then brutally killed by Taliban during the 1996 siege of Kabul | |
Abdul Ali Mazari (1946-March 1995) was a prominant rebel commander during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Afghan Civil War.
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[edit] Education
Mazari was born in the village of Chahar Kint, south of the northern Afghan city of Mazari Sharif, in a Hazara family. Hence, his surname is "Mazari". He began his primary schooling in theology at the local school in his village, then went to Mazari Sharif, then Qom in Iran, and then to Najaf in Iraq. Like most of the Hazaras of Afghanistan, Mazari grew up in poverty.
[edit] Political Careers
In Iran, Mazari was imprisoned and tortured after being accused of conspiracy against the Shah of Iran in assistance with Irani Shi'ite clerics. [citation needed]
Simultaneously with the occupation of Afghanistan by the Red Army, Mazari returned to his birthplace and gained a prominent place in the anti-Soviet resistance movement. [citation needed] 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 puppet regime in Kabul. He also lost his father, Haji Khudadad, and his brother, Haji Mohammad Nabi, in the rebellion and resistance movement. [citation needed]
[edit] Hizb e Wahdat
Mazari was one of the founding members and the first leader of Hizb e Wahdat Islamic Afghanistan (Islamic Unity Party). [citation needed] In the first Congress of the party, he was elected leader of the Central Committee. During the second Congress, he was elected Secretary General of the Wahdat Party. Mazari's initiative led to the creation of the Jonbesh-e Shamal (Northern Movement), in which the country's most significant military forces joined ranks with the rebels, leading to a coup d'etat and the eventual downfall of the regime in Kabul. [citation needed]
[edit] Civil War
The fall of Kabul to the Mujahideen led the foundation stone of the Afghan Civil War among various factions, parties and ethnic groups. During this period, Mazari led the forces of Hizb e Wahdat who were based in West Kabul. [citation needed] More than twenty-six fierce battles were fought between Hizb e Wahdat and the forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Abdur Rasool Sayyaf and Abdul Rashid Dostum. The result was total destruction of Kabul city and the death of more than 50,000 civilians. More than 900 civilians were massacred in the Hazara dominated district of Afshar in Kabul and many more in Karte Seh, by the invading forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud and Abdur Rasool Sayyaf assisted by mainly Sayed traitors in Hizb e Wahdat. [citation needed][[Image:Mazari2.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Abdul Ali Mazari.
The Massoud-Hekmatyar-Sayyaf triangle never considered Hazaras to be of significance in the Afghan government. [citation needed] The Hazaras had been and have been targets of mass scale ethnic and religious persecution. [citation needed] Hazaras lived in the lowest class of Afghan social hierarchy. Because of having features different to those of other Afghans they could be easily pin pointed and distinguished. [citation needed] Majority of the Hazaras are followers of the Shi'ite branch of Islam in contrast to the majority faction of Sunnis, which has followers in all the other ethnic groups of Afghanistan. [citation needed] It wasn't until the battle for West Kabul that Hazaras came to global consideration as a potential power in Afghanistan.
During the civil war, these leaders changed affiliations on many occasions. Mazari's affiliations and peace accords on different occasions were with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Rasheed Dostum and the final one was a failed attempt of peace accord with the Taliban in 1996 which resulted in his own death. [citation needed]
Hizb e Wahdat was also on many occasions accused of serious human rights violation and killing of civilians. [citation needed]
The resistance of West Kabul against the occupation forces of Massoud, Hekmatyar, and Sayyaf lasted until Saturday, 21 Hoot (11 March 1995). The West Kabul resistance was unique considering the imbalance of forces, weaponry, training and experience between the two sides. [citation needed]
[edit] Betrayal
Mullah Burjan, the Taliban leader, requested for a personal meeting with Mazari. He set of towards Chahar Asiyab in the company of a group of the Central Committee members, in a convoy of two cars, whereupon they were betrayed, disarmed and arrested. His forces were disarmed and soon the whole of West Kabul came under Taliban rule.
Though Mazari and his companions were intended to be transferred in helicopters to Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold, they were brutally killed somewhere close to the city of Ghazni. [citation needed]
