Fahim Dashti, the spokesman for the Afghan National Resistance Front, was martyred while he was at peak of his fame
Author: Fakhriddin Kholbek
He was one of those who survived the suicide attack on Ahmad Shah Massoud on September 9, 2001, with severe injuries from the scene. Nevertheless, fate once again struck him with a terrorist attack and ended his life.
In an interview with Sputnik Tajikistan on July 11, Fahim Dashti said that after the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud and the betrayal of his ideals by his followers, he had completely withdrawn from politics, seeing only one light behind Afghanistan's dark space, the son of a national hero. It was Ahmad Massoud.
Fahim Dashti said: "When I looked at him, some of his movements were like Amir Saheb (the title of Ahmad Shah Massoud among his supporters) and I was overwhelmed by the memories of the hero of my life. Then I promised myself that if Ahmad grow up and wants to become a politician, I would stand with him."
Fahim Dashti is the nephew of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a well-known Afghan politician. Mr. Abdullah was nominated three times in the Afghanistan presidential elections and was the chairman of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council until the arrival of the Taliban to Kabul.
However, Dashti never came close to this famous relative. He did not even mention him in his speeches. Abdullah did not exist for him, at least in his official life. Dashti also did not like to talk about his relationship with his uncle in the family circle. Apparently, it was annoying to him.
Mohammad Fahim Dashti was born in January 1973, in his own words, "in a snowy and cold winter" in the family of General Qasim, a road construction specialist in the village of Dashtak in Panjshir province. He attended the "Esteghlal" lyceum in Kabul and in 1990 entered the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Kabul University.
Rabbani's order
In 1992, the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani came to power in Kabul. Ahmad Shah Massoud, his powerful minister of defense, founded a magazine called Kabul Weekly and appointed Razzaq Ma'mun, a well-known Afghan journalist, as its editor. Dashti started his journalistic career in this weekly.
Dashti recalled: "In the winter of 1995, Kabul Weekly published reports on the corrupt activities of the then Afghan ambassador to New Delhi, and I was one of the authors of these reports. But these reports were not to the liking of then-president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who ordered to close the weekly."
Efforts to reopen the Kabul Weekly failed, but Ahmad Shah Massoud agreed to launch another weekly with the same content, but under a different name. A new weekly called "Bala Hesar" was launched, and Dashti was its deputy editor-in-chief until the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in September 1996.
Dashti added: "At that time, I did not understand why Amir Sahib, with his power and fame, did not prevent Ustad Rabbani. Later, as I became more acquainted with him, I realized that he just had great respect for Ustad. Massoud had a lot of respect for people older than him."
Resistance with camcorder
During the First Resistance (1996-2001), he joined the Arianafilm team, which was founded by Ahmad Shah Massoud as part of the Resistance Front's apparate, and produced documentaries about the situation in areas of Afghanistan that were not under Taliban control.
In the four and a half years of working with Ariana Film, Dashti has made a significant contribution to the production and publication of eight documentary series called "Resistance", which has entered the glorious pages of the Afghan people's resistance against the Taliban and international terrorism. This rare film is now preserved in the archives of the Ahmad Shah Massoud Foundation.
September 9, 2001, the day Ahmad Shah Massoud was martyred, Yusuf Jansarnar, director of Arianafilm and responsible for video recording of Massoud's activities, was in Tajikistan. The recording of Masoud's last interview, which was Dashti's first, was entrusted to him.
The worst news
Dashti during the terrorist attack on the leader of the Resistance Front, which was carried out by two Arab suicide bombers, who as journalists made their way to Massoud and killed him, was in that room and busy with filming.
He suffered severe injuries and burns following the explosion. He was transferred to Dushanbe and then to France by Reporters without Borders for treatment.
The story that made him cry always is the news of Massoud's death, which he heard from his brother Shoaib in Dushanbe.
"When I regained consciousness, I was transferred to my brother's rented flat in Dushanbe. I asked him how is Amir Saheb?," said Dashti. He replied, "He is doing well and fighting the Taliban." But one day my brother was talking to me about the Amer Sahib Museum. I was amazed. I said, "Man, are you crazy?" Where did you see the museum being arranged for an alive person? ”Shoaib didn't say anything and began to cry. This was the worst news of my life. I fainted when I heard it."
This was the time when the world coalition forces, in cooperation with the United Front began common operations against the Taliban, who were overthrown in Kabul later.
After Massoud
In France, Dashti launched a plan to restart Kabul Weekly and, with the cooperation of Reporters Without Borders and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), received the initial funding.
Kabul Weekly's publishing lasted from 2002 to the spring of 2011. Dashti was editor-in-chief, but financing came to end and no one was willing to invest in the paper, and Dashti was forced to close it.
"At that time, Massoud's so-called followers, such as Marshal Qasim Fahim, Younes Qanuni, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, and others, were among the richest people in Afghanistan," Dashti said. "But none of them gave a penny to the preservation of Massoud's legacy."
In 2013, he founded the first private photography agency in Afghanistan, which he also headed, but for another two years, he did not enjoy his work. At one time, Dashti was also the executive director of the National Union of Journalists of Afghanistan.
In the meantime, he published some books entitled "The Moment of tragedy" (about the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud), "Notes of a Journalist", "Far and Near of Amir Sahib", and so on. His last book was called "The End of the Game".
Recent days
From 2018, when Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, began his political activities, Dashti was the head of his political bureau. For the past year, the office worked on the program of Second Resistance. Ahmad Massoud's team thought that if the peace process between the Afghan government and the Taliban failed, new resistance was inevitable.
Dashti heard the news about the capture of Kabul by the Taliban on August 15, 2021, in Panjshir. The next day, when the Afghan National Resistance Front actually was announced, he was appointed as the head of the front's press center.
Six days before his death, Dashti opened the pages of the Resistance Front on social media, and the media center started its work, but it was too late. On September 2, the Taliban cut off electricity, telephone, and internet in Panjshir. After that, no one heard Dashti's voice anymore.
During a call to Sputnik Tajikistan, he was asked about the fate of the Panjshir war. "Our victory will be a miracle, but we have very little chance," he said.
Dashti continued:
"Even if we fail and die, the story of our resistance remains. These are the words of Amir Saheb Massoud".
But no one was found, who says, these were the words of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the hero of Fahim Dashti's life. Like Massoud, he was martyred at the age of 48 and in September, four days before Massoud's death 20 years ago.
