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Latterly, supporters of a leader from the other side, Dr Najibullah, have been petitioning to have Ariana Square in the centre of Kabul re-named in his honour. As reported by a correspondent of Ariana News, a Kabul-based agency, the supporters said Dr Najib had been, ‘the last recognized communist president who defended Independence and Integrity of Afghan land and lost his life because of encroachment and external interference.’ (see here and here). Fondly remembered by many Kaulis as a strong leader who presided over a secure, liberal and relatively non-corrupt capital city, other Afghans recall him as the head of the greatly feared PDPA intelligence agency, the KhAD, and his role in the Soviet-supported regime which laid waste to villages and lands associated with the mujahedin. Dr Najib, as he was called for short, and his brother Shahpur Ahmadzai were killed by the Taleban in the UN compound where they had found refuge for the previous four years. Their mutilated bodies were hung in Ariana Square – a place where guard towers now watch over the CIA’s Afghan headquarters in the old Ariana Hotel.
While it is highly unlikely that Dr Najib will make it onto the maps of Kabul anytime soon, one of the more recent ‘martyrs’ of Afghanistan’s long war, Ustad Rabbani, has done so. On the first anniversary of his assassination, President Hamed Karzai announced to the nation that Kandahar airport, the road from the Polytechnic to Qargha Lake in Kabul and the University of Education (pohantun-e ta’alim wa tarbia), also in the capital, would all be re-named in his honour. This tribute to the man now referred to in official discourse as the ‘Martyr of Peace’, for his role heading the High Peace Council and dying while trying to foster negotiations with the Taleban, has sparked daily demonstrations by students and the effective closure of the University of Education. On Saturday, some 300 of them also managed to close the parliament.
While it is highly unlikely that Dr Najib will make it onto the maps of Kabul anytime soon, one of the more recent ‘martyrs’ of Afghanistan’s long war, Ustad Rabbani, has done so. On the first anniversary of his assassination, President Hamed Karzai announced to the nation that Kandahar airport, the road from the Polytechnic to Qargha Lake in Kabul and the University of Education (pohantun-e ta’alim wa tarbia), also in the capital, would all be re-named in his honour. This tribute to the man now referred to in official discourse as the ‘Martyr of Peace’, for his role heading the High Peace Council and dying while trying to foster negotiations with the Taleban, has sparked daily demonstrations by students and the effective closure of the University of Education. On Saturday, some 300 of them also managed to close the parliament.
