Waheed Muzhda

Waheed Muzdha was a senior Afghan political analyst, writer and a peace activist. He was also a poet and wrote several anti-Soviet poetry during the Soviet Afghan war. He was widely cited by various international newspapers for his views on Afghan conflict. During his career, Muzhda criticized both the Taliban and the Afghan government. Muzhda was praised as a probing intellectual by many journalists and scholars. He was assassinated on 20 November 2019 in Kabul. Several political observers and experts believe that Muzhda was assassinated for his views by pro-government groups as 'a part of campaign to silence people with different views'. Previously, he was reported to have been arrested by Afghan intelligence agency NDS.

On 20 November 2019, Waheed Muzhda was assassinated in Kabul by two gunmen on a motorcycle while he was on his way to the Mosque near a Russian embassy.

Funeral for Muzhda took place on 21 November 2019 and it was attended by Prominent figures of all backgrounds.

In 2013, during an interview with German newspaper, Die Presse, Muzhda said that Taliban and Iran had links with each other since 2009 and these links have been ignored by the European and US media. He stated that Iran was supporting Taliban because it wanted to get rid of United States presence in Afghanistan.

On 9 April 2012, Al Jazeera quoted Muzhda after former colleague Abdul Salam Zaeef fled Afghanistan for the United Arab Emirates. Zaeef, like Muzhda, had worked in the Taliban's Foreign Ministry, and had served as the Taliban's Ambassador to Pakistan. Zaeef was held in the controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Following his release, he served as a key intermediary between his former colleagues within the Taliban and American peace negotiators and he had been the target of repeated night raids. Muzhda explained that many other former Guantanamo captives who had been the target of night raids had been killed, not captured, and that Zaeef feared that US special forces would kill him in a future raid if he didn't leave Afghanistan.

After Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Muzhda worked at Taliban's Foreign Ministry. However, he was never a part of any Taliban religious militia. After the fall of Taliban in 2001, Muzhda continued to stay in Kabul and started working for the new Afghan government.

During the Soviet Afghan war, Muzhda was a part Afghan Mujahideen and wrote several anti-Soviet poetry. Despite being part of Mujahideen, Muzhda never picked a gun or took part in battle against the Soviet troops. In 1989, Time magazine reported that Muzhda was working as a translator for Dr Abdullah Azzam, a leader of Afghan Arabs—foreign fighters who had traveled to Afghanistan to help their fellow Muslims in opposition to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Muzhda was born in 1953 in Baghlan province. He completed his elementary education at Habibia High School in Kabul, and later earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Kabul University.