Ali Maisam Nazary, the head of foreign relations of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), wrote on his Twitter handle that the Taliban massacred thousands of Hazara and Shia civilians on this day because of their ethnic and religious affiliations.
While noting that this massacre should be recognized as a genocide, Nazary has warned that the people of Afghanistan are once again facing a similar situation under the Taliban reign in Afghanistan.
After entering Mazar-e-Sharif city in northern Balkh province on August 8, 1998, the Taliban killed many civilians, particularly those belonging to the Hazara ethnicity.
In their report about the massacre, human rights organisations too said that the Taliban "killed thousands of civilians" by recapturing the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998.
Human Rights Watch had said in a report that the massacre at Mazar-e-Sharif by the Taliban was in "revenge" for the killing of 2,000 members of this group's forces in 1997, who had been killed after capturing the cities of Mazar-e-Sharif and Shaberghan.
The Taliban have also been accused of shooting eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist after entering the Iranian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, on the same day. However, the group has never taken responsibility for that incident.
Some Iranian social media users remembered Mahmoud Saremi, an Iranian journalist who was killed on this day. Asma Qaidizada wrote on Facebook, "Today is the anniversary of the killing of a journalist and eight Iranian diplomats in a brutal Taliban attack on the Iranian Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif.”
Asma criticised the statement published by the Iran's Foreign Ministry on this occasion and said that in this announcement, the Taliban as a group had been not condemned, and the perpetrators of this terrorist attack were mentioned as anonymous.
On August 8, Iran's Foreign Ministry had issued a statement calling for the clarification regarding the killing of its diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif and various aspects of this attack.