Ahmad Massoud, leader of the National Resistance Front, said at an event that the “illegitimate rule of the Taliban” must be challenged through civic, field and intellectual efforts, calling the struggle for Afghanistan’s freedom a “religious duty”.
Massoud said the continuation of Afghanistan’s current situation is not in the interest of Muslims.
In his speech, he stated that the present conditions in Afghanistan will not last and that people will soon witness change.
He said a despotic group is currently ruling Afghanistan and that no tyranny endures forever.
Massoud stressed that no system could survive without domestic and international legitimacy, and that a regime which silences women, young people and freedom cannot represent Afghanistan’s future.
He also implicitly accused the Taliban of fuelling ethnic divisions in Afghanistan.
He noted that Iran is more ethnically diverse than Afghanistan but said its people have reached a collective political understanding that the country is their shared homeland.
Massoud said the people of Iran trusted one another and that “the whole world” gathered against them but could not defeat them. He added that when there were attempts to destroy a bridge, people from all ethnic groups gathered around it and prevented its destruction.
He also referred to commemorations date marking the anniversary of the death of his father, Ahmad Shah Massoud, saying that “Pakol-wearers” sought to stage a poor defence using his father’s image. According to him, they appeared to mourn but intended to provoke and harass people.
Massoud said the Taliban do not represent the Pashtun ethnic group and that “wise Pashtuns” bear greater responsibility to recognise that, as he put it, the Taliban’s hypocrisy runs counter to national unity.
The leader of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan added that over the past 20 years, Pashtuns in Afghanistan have suffered the greatest losses.
The event was held online to mark April 28, the day in 1992 when the mujahideen entered Kabul following the fall of the government of Mohammad Najibullah.
