Word: hazaras
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...days the city celebrated its liberation, but soon the victorious commanders zeroed in on the spoils. While Dostum, an Uzbek, held court at his Kalai Jangi fortress to the southeast, Tajik leader Atta Mohammed and Hazara chief Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq set themselves up in palatial villas in their own quarters of the city. In public all three insist their convenient alliance is holding as they empty Mazar of armed men and set up a joint security force...
...Three commanders of different ethnic backgrounds have taken Mazar, and they are the city's key players for the foreseeable future. Two of the commanders, Ustad Mohammed Atta (of Tajik descent) and Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq (a member of the Hazara tribe), set themselves up in palatial villas in the city center. General Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek, took over Kalai Jangi, an ancient mud-walled fortress to the southwest. In public, all three insist an alliance born of necessity is holding. They say they are cooperating in the primary task of emptying Mazar of armed men and establishing a joint security...
...aren't exactly safe; residents lock themselves in high-walled homes and the pop and crack of gunfire sounds across the city until dawn. Even in daytime, people tend to remain within their neighborhoods, which are lumped into three zones under the control of Dostum, Atta or Mohaqiq. The Hazaras catch most of the blame for the city's violence. In fact, they have most cause for revenge: when the Taliban took the city in 1998 they singled out Hazaras, who are Shi'ite Muslims (the Taliban are Sunnis) and massacred 6,000. The Hazara district in the north...
...Qala-i-Jangi, the Taliban soldiers were asked to turn out their pockets. A prisoner, waiting until Alliance commander Nadir Ali was near, suddenly produced a grenade and pulled the pin, killing himself and the commander. In a similar attack the same night, another prisoner killed himself and senior Hazara commander Saeed Asad. The remaining men were led into underground cells to join scores of other captured Taliban fighters. Despite the grenade attacks, the Alliance guards were not reinforced...
...although its prefers to be known as the "United Front" is not exactly united on just who should govern Afghanistan and how. There has been obvious battlefield competition between Tajik militias loyal to Rabbani and those of Uzbek warlord G eneral Rashid Dostum, while the Alliance's ethnic Hazaras even marched on Kabul to stake their own claim on power when the Tajik forces seized the city. And the Alliance's Uzbek and Hazara leaders have shown little enthusiasm for bringing back Rabbani. Making facts on the ground