Afghanistan, Kabul, 8 September / Trend corr. A.Hakimi / President Hamid Karzai has urged his people to forge strong unity in their ranks to ensure Afghanistan's fast-track reconstruction and stability after decades of conflict.
Addressing a gathering on the 7th death anniversary of Ahmad Shah Massoud in the tent of Loya Jirga here on Monday, he said: "In light of my six years experience, I tell everyone not to fall prey to the conspiracies of Afghanistan's enemies.
The president asked the Afghans to stand united. "There should be no communists and warlords among you," he said. He urged his compatriots to be on high alert against conspirators and earn Afghanistan the place desired by martyrs who scarified their lives for liberty and rebuilding of the country.
Karzai added: "Today's liberty of the nation is due to the campaign of Ahmad Shah Massoud and his colleagues; we should not forget that Massoud was a loyal son of this soil. For liberating his motherland, he fought courageously."
Karzai quoted Massoud as saying: I will not leave the country even if there is no farmland. And the great commander lived out that promise by preventing Afghanistan's fall to the enemies, the president acknowledged. Ahmad Shah Massoud, renowned Jihadi commander and an implacable Taliban rival, was killed by two foreign suicide attackers in Khwaja Bahauddin district of the northern Takhar province.
President Hamid Karzai lamented although Afghanistan was a free land, it remained in the grip of bloodshed. He referred to a recent suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul and civilian casualties in a US airstrike on the Azizabad village of the Shindand district.
A distraught elder from the Shindand district told the president at a meeting: "In this region, there will be no women to cook and no children to kiss." The elder was referring to mounting civilian casualties in NATO and coalition raids.
Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, former Jihadi leader and presently member of the Wolesi Jirga, warned fighting would yield no success as long as mujahidin were not included in the government. "If mujahidin does not win the battle, no one can."