Afghanistan

2010-11-09T02:02:00.001-08:00

Kabul City

2010-10-15T01:51:00.000-07:00

Kabul (Persian: کابل Kābol IPA: kɒːˈbol ; Pashto: کابل Kābul IPA: kɑˈbul ; archaic Caubul), is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, located in the Kabul Province. According to the 2008 official estimates, the population of Kabul metropolitan area is 2.8 million people.

It is an economic and cultural centre, situated 5,900 ft (1,800 m) above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River. The city is linked with Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif via a circular highway that stretches across the country. It is also the start of the main road to Jalalabad and further to Peshawar, Pakistan.

Kabul's main products include fresh and dried fruit, nuts, Afghan rugs, leather and sheep skin products, domestic clothes and furniture, and antique replicas, but the 1978-2001 wars have limited the economic productivity of the city. Economic productivity has improved since the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Kabul is over 3,500 years old; many empires have long fought over the city for its strategic location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia. From 1504 to 1526, Kabul served as the original capital of Babur, builder of the Mughal Empire. It remained under the Delhi Sultanate until 1738, when Nader Shah and his Afsharid forces invaded the Mughal Empire.After the death of Nader Shah Afsharid in 1747, the city fell to Ahmad Shah Durrani, who quickly added it to his new Afghan Empire. In 1776, Timur Shah Durrani made it the capital of the modern state of Afghanistan. Since the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan, the city has been a target of militant groups. It is currently being re-developed 7 but attacks by Taliban and other militants are slowing down the reconstruction process.

Daikondi (Afghanistan)

2010-10-14T14:39:00.000-07:00

Daykundi (Persian: دایکندی ) also spelled Daikondi, Dāykondī or Daikundi, is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. Daykundi's capital is Nili. It is located about 310 kilometres from Kabul, and falls into the traditionally ethnic Hazara region known as the Hazarajat.

Daykundi was established on March 28, 2004, when it was created from the isolated Hazara-dominated northern districts of Oruzgan province. Until 2006, Gizab District was the only district in Daykundi province with a majority Pashtun population, but in May 2006 the government of Afghanistan took Gizab from Daykundi and re-annexed it to Oruzgan province to the south.

Zendegy nama Ustad Shahid Abdol Ali Mazari

2010-10-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

Abdul Ali Mazari (Persian: عبدلعلی مزاری - ʿAbd al-ʿAlī Mazārī) was a political leader of the Hezbe Wahdat during and following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.^[1]Mazari was an ethnic Hazara, and believed the solution to the divisiveness in Afghanistan was in federalism, where every ethnic group would have specific constitutional rights.
An ethnic Hazara, Abdul Ali Mazari was born in the village of Charkent, south of the northern city of Mazari Sharif. 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.

Hezbe Wahda

Abdul Ali Mazari was one of the founding members and the first leader of the Hezbe Wahdat (Unity Party). 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'état and the eventual downfall of the regime in Kabul.

Taliban era and death

In March 1995, the Taliban invited him for political dialogue and treacherously arrested him along with his five companions in Chaharasyab, near Kabul. Next day he was thrown out from a helicopter while in flight near Ghazni which killed him. The Taliban issued a statement that Abdul Ali Mazari attacked the guards when he was being flown to Qandahar. Later his body and those of his companions were handed over to Hezbe Wahdat. The bodies were all mutilated and showed signs of brutality. Abdul Ali Mazari's body was carried on foot from Ghazni in the west to Mazar-e-Sharif in the north of Afghanistanby his followers over a period of forty days. He is regarded a national hero by the Hazara community.