Abdul Ali Mazari

Mazari's body was carried on foot from Ghazni to Mazar-i-Sharif in the north (at the time under the control of his ally Abdul Rashid Dostum) all across the Hazara lands in heavy snow by his followers over forty days. Hundreds of thousands attended his funeral in Mazar-i Sharif. Mazari was officially named a Martyr for National Unity of Afghanistan by President Ashraf Ghani in 2016.

Abdul Ali Mazari (Persian: عبدالعلی مزاری; 1946 – March 13, 1995) was an ethnic Hazara politician, leader of the Hezbe Wahdat party during and following the Soviet–Afghan War, who believed that the solution to the internal divisions in Afghanistan was in a federal system of governance, with each ethnic group having specific constitutional rights and able to govern their land and people. He was captured and killed by the Taliban in 1995, and posthumously given the title ‘Martyr Of National Unity’ in 2016 by Ashraf Ghani government. He supported equal representation of all ethnic groups of Afghanistan, especially Hazaras, who claim that they are being persecuted by other political groups.

On March 12, 1995, the Taliban requested a meeting with Mazari and a delegation from the Islamic Wahdat Central Party Abuzar Ghaznawi, Ekhlaasi, Eid Mohammad Ibrahimi Behsudi, Ghassemi, Jan Mohammad, Sayed Ali Alavi, Bahodari, and Jan Ali in Chahar Asiab, near Kabul. On their arrival, the group was abducted and tortured. The following day Mazari was killed and his body was found in a district of Ghazni. The Taliban issued a statement that Mazari had attacked the Taliban guards while being flown to Kandahar. Later, his body and those of his companions were handed over to Hezb-e Wahdat, mutilated and showing signs of torture.

After the 1992 fall of Kabul, the Afghan political parties agreed on a peace and power-sharing agreement, the Peshawar Accords, which created the Islamic State of Afghanistan and appointed an interim government for a transitional period to be followed by general elections. According to Human Rights Watch:

The Hezbe Wahdat initially took part in the Islamic State and held some posts in the government. Soon, however, conflict broke out between the Hazara Hezbe Wahdat of Mazari and the Pashtun Ittihad-i Islami of Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. The Islamic State's defense minister Ahmad Shah Massoud tried to mediate between the factions with some success, but the cease-fire remained only temporary. In June 1992, the Hezbe Wahdat and the Ittihad-i Islami engaged in violent street battles against each other. With the support of Saudi Arabia, Sayyaf's forces repeatedly attacked the western suburbs of Kabul resulting in heavy civilian casualties. Likewise, Iran allegedly supported Mazari's forces that were also accused of attacking civilian targets in the west. Mazari acknowledged taking Pashtun civilians as prisoners, but defended the action by saying that Sayyaf's forces took Hazaras first. Mazari's group started cooperating with Hekmatyar's group from January 1993.