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).

The Afshar massacre: why we must not forget

Today marks the thirty-third anniversary of the Afshar massacre. On February 11, 1993, a state-sponsored attack under the command of Ahmad Shah Massoud targeted Afshar, in the west of Kabul, a predominantly Hazara neighborhood, during which between 1,500 and 2,000 people were massacred. It remains one of the darkest chapters in the history of Afghanistan. 

For Hazaras, February 11 marks remembrance day each year, a day that brings back the deep wound inflicted on the body and soul of the Hazara people. Many Hazaras believe that it was part of the ongoing genocidal violence against the Hazaras. 

In the early 1990s, a pivotal moment occurred when Hazara, for the first time in history, took up arms to resist their systematic repression.  And yet, the violence did not come from the usual source, such as Pashtuns, but from the Tajik-led Mujahideen government under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani.

What concerns me most today is that we commemorate this tragedy only once a year — and even then, often only in words. My hope is that one day, Hazaras will compile and establish a comprehensive oral history archive of the Afshar massacre so that future generations become aware of their history and carry forward the memory of this wound so that it never occurs again.