Word: massoud
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...mujahedin will need all their reserves next spring, when the end of winter will signal the final push on Kabul. Massoud told TIME he intends to cut off major highways into the capital, then take on outlying garrisons. At the same time, he plans to launch a campaign of disruption inside Kabul in an effort to spark a popular uprising as food grows scarce. "We have put considerable effort into organizing the resistance inside the cities," he explains, "and we now have an extensive underground network." In the meantime, Jamiat and other resistance groups are keeping up the pressure...
During the current pause, the Panjshir is alive with conflicting evidence of a coming peace and continued war. Substantial numbers of refugees, some from as far away as Pakistan, are returning to their homes in villages along the valley. The Council of the North, a local body organized by Massoud, continues ; to set up schools and clinics and to broaden basic administration for the region...
Assuming that victory is within reach, Massoud has been devoting time to his second major concern, the maneuvering for advantage among the seven mujahedin parties. All members of the Peshawar alliance are fighting for a country under an Islamic dispensation, but the political shape of that concept is something on which they differ sharply...
...Zahir Shah, to serve as an interim ruler. Jamiat leaders reject the suggestion outright because they regard the King as a feudal holdover as well as accountable for the steady growth of Soviet involvement in the country until his ouster in 1973. "Free elections will have their limits," says Massoud. "Even if one of the other mujahedin parties were to propose it, we would not agree to people who have betrayed this country having a chance to participate...
...discuss military strategy and the internal politicking with Massoud, the leader of Jamiat-i-Islami, Burhanuddin Rabbani, 53, in September made his first trip to Afghanistan's northeast since the war began. Accompanied by an escort equipped with Stinger missiles, the former Kabul University theology professor met with Jamiat commanders in Panjshir's bomb-scarred villages. Rabbani told TIME that he thought it unlikely that elections could be held soon after Kabul falls. "It is important to establish a government on the basis of the vote of the common people of Afghanistan," he said in a bow to principle...