The 1993 Afshar Massacre: Testimony from Rabbani's Government

This is part of the confessions of General Mohammad Nabi Azimi, a high-ranking official in the government of Rabbani and Massoud, as recorded in his book. (Urdu va Siyasat Dar Seh Daheh Akheer-e Afghanistan [Army and Politics in the Last Three Decades in Afghanistan] Peshawar: Qisa-khani Bazara Peshawar, Saba Kitabkhanah 1998. p. 632-33)

"The third war of Shura-e Nazar [Ahmad Shah Massoud's party] and the Hazaras occurred on February 11, 1993, and as a result, Afshar in Kabul was leveled to the ground. The men, women, and children of the Afshar Hazaras were mercilessly put to the sword and annihilated by Massoud and Sayyaf forces... To completely intimidate the Hazaras, Ahmad Shah Massoud directed all the tanks, mortars, rocket launchers, and aircraft he had at two points of the city, Chindawol and Afshar [both are Hazara neighborhoods]. Afshar was razed to the ground, and Chindawol was destroyed... Ahmad Shah Massoud himself had gone up on the TV Hill, from where he watched, directed, and managed the attacks. This attack lasted five nights. Hazara people and Shiites were buried alive under tons of rubble from their homes, or were roasted alive and burned in fires. The number of martyrs reached hundreds, even thousands. The Kabul hospital was destroyed, the Maywand Road buildings were ruined, the businesses, homes, caravanserais, and apartments that could be seen from Lailami Caravanserai to Chindawol were all leveled to the ground" (page 632-633).