At about 4 am, the Pakistani embassy in Kabul called Nazari and said that Ahmad Massoud's visa was ready, come and get it. Nazari was surprised. Is the Pakistani Embassy open at night? When the young Emir heard the news, he too was amazed. What is the reason for all this rush?
Author: Fakhriddin Kholbek, member of the Sangar Advisory Board
Part 1: Plane of death: how did the plan to kill Ahmad Massoud fail?
Part 2: YOUNG EMIR
The sly plan
However, the biggest obstacle that the US and Pakistan had already identified and preferred to keep silent about but always wanted to remove was Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud. They followed his every move with the help of Ghani's national security service, which, according to some reports, even sent suicide bombers after him during his trip to Dushanbe and Tehran between 2018-2019. His presence on the Afghan political scene not only destroyed all the expectations and plans of international intelligence to permanently crush the anti-Taliban resistance in Afghanistan but also kept the fire of hope in the hearts of a new historical resistance that collapsed with the death of Ahmad Shah Massoud.
After the signing of the agreement between the Taliban and the United States, the personality of Ahmad Massoud shone very little in the light of such leaders as Abdullah Abdullah, Yunus Qanuni, Salahuddin Rabbani, and the man who in those days looked more effective than others - Amrullah Saleh. The political sun of Massoud the Younger is just beginning to rise on the horizon of Afghan politics. Some considered him an inexperienced and immature youth, and his sincerity and spiritual purity were taken as naivety.
However, foreign intelligence concluded that the plan to transfer power to the Taliban and crush the resistance created by Ahmad Shah Massoud, and finally take full control of Afghanistan once and for all, is by no means possible without removing the only obstacle - Ahmad Massoud.
From there they prepared a plan. According to him, when Kabul surrendered to the Taliban, none of the anti-Taliban leaders should have survived. All had to be eliminated in one fell swoop. The implementation of the plan had to be carried out in such a way that it would have global resonance and shock. The world should be trembling with horror. The sly plan was to be implemented within the framework of the meeting of the leaders of the anti-Taliban movement in Islamabad, which was organized by the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All the leaders of the anti-Taliban resistance were invited to it, including Ahmad Massoud.
Doomsday in Kabul
The Panjshir elders' meeting ended at 3:00 am on 15 August. Ahmad Massoud returned home tired in Kartai Se. He was accompanied by Ali Maisam Nazari, then head of the foreign affairs department of his office, and Tariq Mohammadi, his maternal uncle. Young Emir (nickname of Ahmad Massoud) went to his room to rest.
At about 4 am, the Pakistani embassy in Kabul called Nazari and said that Ahmad Massoud's visa was ready, come and get it. Nazari was surprised. Is the Pakistani Embassy open at night? When the young Emir heard the news, he too was amazed. What is the reason for all this rush?
In the political office of Ahmad Massoud, there was a khonasomon - a servant in charge of the internal order of the office, named Hafiz, who always had a smile on his face. He delivered even bad news with a smile. But at about 6 o'clock in the morning of that day, he knocked on the door of Emir's room and, with anxiety completely unusual for him, said that there was panic in the city and people were in disarray, everyone was in a hurry somewhere.
Young Emir called his friends and learned that Amrullah Saleh had left Kabul. He got up and called Bismillahan Muhammadi, then the acting defense minister. The minister said that everyone (Panjshir leaders) had gathered at his house, and he himself was in the ministry. Emir, surrounded by his companions and guards, went to the house of Bismillakhan.
The meeting, held at the home of the Minister of Defense in the Shirpur area of Kabul, was apparently a continuation of the meeting at the home of Ahmad Wali Massoud, but under different circumstances. At night, no one believed that Kabul would fall so soon. The Taliban took control of all the gates of the city, except for Khairkhana, the main northern gate of Kabul. And in this meeting, everyone promised to go to Panjshir and start resistance.
As the participants were leaving the door of Bismillakhan's house, Ahmad Wali Massoud, who is also the uncle of Ahmad Massoud, took his nephew aside and said that he should stop thinking about Panjshir and go to Islamabad with him and his other uncle, Ahmad Wali Massoud, and other leaders. Emir categorically refused: “I have nothing to do in Pakistan. Your participation is enough for us. Better to go and work with people and prepare for resistance.” But my uncle demanded more harshly: “If you don’t come with me, I will never forgive you. Everything has already been decided, empty-handed and alone we cannot stand against the enemy. We don't have anything. First we must prepare. You must come with us!” The young emir again refused and ordered his bodyguards to prepare to go to Panjshir.
Everyone was ready when more bad news came: Charikar, the center of Parwan province, had also fallen to the Taliban, and the only land road to Panjshir had been closed.
The only way left was by air. The young Emir turned to Bismillakhan, who was practically the sole manager of the situation in Afghanistan and also led the air force. The minister told him to go to the airport and he himself will also arrive there soon.
But arriving at the Kabul airport was also a big problem. It was almost 12 noon and the streets of Kabul were full of cars and people. There were rumors that the Americans were taking people out of the country without documents and for free, so people took the road to the airport. It was something like judgment day. Kabul was unrecognizable. Public confusion, fear, horror, unbridledness... People fled from the Taliban. Eyewitnesses of these events wrote terrible stories about that day, which we do not see the need to mention in this article.
Hard flight
That morning, two planes of the Pakistani company PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) landed at the Kabul airport. One large, accommodating about 360 people, and the other, small, for 60-70 passengers. This plane was waiting for its passengers. In addition to ordinary passengers, he was supposed to deliver the leaders of the anti-Taliban movement to Islamabad in his VIP cabin.
The plan for this meeting was born in the city of Tashkent. On July 15-16, 2021, exactly one month before the capture of Kabul by the Taliban, at the initiative of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, an international conference “Central Asia and South Asia: regional solidarity. Challenges and Opportunities”, which was also attended by the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan - Ashraf Ghani and Imran Khan.
In a one-on-one meeting with Ghani, the Pakistani leader suggested that a meeting of leaders of all Afghan ethnic groups - Tajiks, Pashtuns, Hazaras, and Uzbeks - from both the government and non-governmental, be held in Islamabad over the next few days to develop a peace plan with the Taliban. Even Imran Khan said that after this Tashkent conference they could go straight to Islamabad. But Ghani did not agree and asked to postpone this meeting. He sabotaged. He did not want such meetings to be held. But by August 15, Pakistan changed its mind. He decided to invite only non-Pashtuns - Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks. Not a single Pashtun was invited.
On the morning of August 15, Tajik leaders Yunus Qanuni, Salahuddin Rabbani, Mirrahman Rahmani, Ahmadvali Massoud, Ahmadziya Massoud, Latif Pidram and the Hazara Mohammed Muhaqqiq were on the PIA plane. Karim Khalili, another Hazara leader, was stuck in a huge traffic jam at the Kabul airport and was running late.
Khalid Nur, the eldest son of Atamuhammad Nur, who was supposed to represent his father at the Pakistani meeting, bought a ticket for a flight to Islamabad from Tashkent. But on August 14, Mazar-i-Sharif fell. Khalid reached Kabul. But for him and his companion - Umar Yunus, the son of Zalmai Yunus, the former ambassador of Afghanistan to Tajikistan and adviser to the head of Jamiyati Islami Ustad Atamuhammad Nur, there was no place on the big plane. They were placed in a small plane. But at the last moment, they were placed on a large plane, as a couple of participants in the Pakistani meeting did not come.
One of them was Batur Dostum, the son of Marshal Abdurshid Dostum, who, although present in Kabul, avoided the meeting in Islamabad. Marshal Dostum never had good relations with Pakistan and did not see any benefit in cooperation with this country. After Ghani's escape and the arrival of the Taliban in the city of Batur, Dostum arrived at the airport at about 2 p.m. on the same day and flew to Istanbul in the evening.
The Pakistani plane was supposed to take off at 11 o'clock but did not take off. Karim Khalili boarded the plane at 11:10. It was hot outside, but inside it was even hotter and more exhausting due to the presence of dozens of passengers (those who have been to Kabul can imagine its hot summer).
When the plane did not take off in time, the passengers panicked. Everyone asked why the flight was delayed. One of the VIP passengers approached the pilot to ask what was the matter. But the pilots just shrugged.
Apparently, the Pakistani pilots themselves did not understand what was happening. Relatives from the Islamabad airport tried to call the passengers and find out about the reasons for the flight delay, but everyone's phones were turned off. At the Islamabad airport, they were told that the pilots were not responding and the plane had no signal in Kabul. Communication between the Islamabad airport and the plane in Kabul was completely interrupted.
One of the passengers, whose brother worked at the airport, went to the airport office to ask officials for the reason for the delay. He was told that there are American planes here that are busy evacuating people, and until the Americans give permission, your plane cannot take off.
A Qatar Airways plane was parked next to a PIA plane at Kabul Civil Airport. This is the same plane that was supposed to take Abdullah Abdullah and Hamid Karzai to Doha in the afternoon for talks with the Taliban. But when the Taliban entered Kabul, these two VIP passengers were placed under house arrest. The other side of the negotiations captured Kabul. She, who had practically won the game, was right there. There was no need to go to Qatar. Later, the Qatari plane flew without Abdullah and Karzai. But until that moment, this aircraft was not allowed to fly too.
The reason for the disconnection of telephone communications with the Kabul airport became known later. Around 13:30, the Americans jammed communications at the airport. They practically took over the operation of the airport and told the Afghan staff that whoever came, from the authorities or from anywhere, keep us posted. The reason for the communications shutdown was to ensure the safety of their aircraft's flight. But after that day, it never turned off again.
The United States of America still has the Communications Act of 1934, which prohibits the use, manufacture, sale, and advertising of cell phone jammers. Violation of this prohibition is punishable by a large fine (up to 11 thousand dollars) and even imprisonment (up to one year).
On that day at the Kabul airport, the disconnection of the phone caused bewilderment among passengers. Everyone suddenly realized that they had become hostages of an unexpected situation. Those who until a few hours ago had all sorts of privileges, money, power, and even an armed group and bodyguards, became practically helpless and destitute. They could not contact anyone, did not know where their cars and bodyguards were and did not understand where they should go if the plane did not fly. In fact, they had only one choice: to fly to Islamabad. In those moments, the best thing that every passenger on this flight could dream of was to fly to Islamabad, since it was impossible to get off the plane, contact the outside world, or even think of another way out of the situation. It's unclear if this was part of the plan or not, but that was the reality.
They couldn't leave the airport because the Taliban had entered Kabul and were soon at the airport gate. But everyone was pleased with one thing, that the airport is still under the control of the Americans (a month later the airport was handed over to the Taliban, in accordance with their agreement with the United States).
Everyone was outwardly calm, but inwardly they lived in their own world. The plane was delayed, the telephone connection was cut off, and the Taliban, their blood enemies, stood at the gates of the airport, ready to tear them to pieces. Thousands of people gathered there, ready even to hang themselves in airplanes, just to get out of Afghanistan. A nightmare, not a situation that even they never dreamed of...
One of the passengers who was very alarmed was Ahmad Wali Massoud. He tried to send a message to his nephew, but it was not sent.
In fact, the Pakistani plane with the leaders of the Anti-Taliban Front could fly, but the pilots made no effort to do so. Everyone was waiting for something, namely what? Nobody really understood anything. No one even guessed that a certain plan was being carried out and only this “plane of death” could fly along them. The plane was waiting for its most important passenger - Ahmad Massoud.
Path choice
Around 13.30 hours, the internal communication of the airport reported that Ahmad Massoud had arrived. Together with his companions and bodyguards, he entered the civilian airport in seven cars, and from there reached the Kabul military airport.
At the military airfield, on the contrary, there was no disorder, everyone was busy with their own business. He was met by Fahim Ramin, Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan Air Force (a native of the village of Bazarak, Panjshir Province (in the photo)). The former chief of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan, Yassin Zia, and a number of other high-ranking military men were also present. Another Panjshiri, Hazem Emiri (a native of the village of Tavakh, Anaba district, and uncle of Khaled Emiri, one of the current commanders of the Resistance Front), was the commander of the airport's security forces.
At about 2 pm, Bismillahan Muhammadi and Tajmuhammad Jahid, the former Afghan interior minister, also arrived at the airport. With them was the chairman of the Military Court of Afghanistan, Dr. Hussein Saeed. In fact, the most prominent Tajik generals gathered and sat down for a consultation with Ahmad Massoud in the office of Fahim Ramin in the service building of the military airport.
Unlike the civilian airport, the military airfield had mobile communications working and was not jammed (strangely, it did not interfere with American military aircraft). At that moment, Bismillahan Mohammadi's mobile phone rang continuously. Abdurab Rasul Sayyaf, Hamid Karzai, Dr. Abdullah, and others called him and asked about the situation. There were other calls from the military, who reported to him about the situation, and most of the messages indicated that the Taliban had entered Kabul.
The Taliban entered Kabul at about 11 o'clock through Khairkhana, Dehsabz, Argandi Chavk, Pulicharhi, and Campani and captured military bases and units. Previously, the Minister of Defense asked for a shock troop to fight. This unit arrived from the province of Logar, but no one accepted it. The soldiers handed over all their weapons and ammunition to the Taliban and fled wherever their eyes looked.
The situation changed rapidly and again the question arose: what to do? Army units were indeed present in some parts of the city. The Minister of Defense was also on duty. He was asked to deploy forces at the gates of the city and fight the Taliban. But Bismillahan said, “No defense is useless. It's all over." The Minister of Defense's response took everyone by surprise. Again, the question arose: what to do?
A little later, the news came that the Taliban had reached the gates of the airport. This news changed not only the state of mind of those present but the entire atmosphere of the airport. There was confusion at the airport. Fahim Ramin invited the audience to board planes and leave Kabul. But where? There were two ways: one, Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, and the other, Panjshir, the only province that the Taliban had not yet reached.
For Ahmad Massoud, there was a third way - Pakistan. Meanwhile, some people advised him to go there, and some, especially from friendly countries, called him and told him not to allow it even in his thoughts. He firmly decided that he would not go to Pakistan.
Ahmad Massoud, Bismillakhan, Tajmuhammad Jahid, Hussein Sayed, and Tariq Muhammadi (Ahmad Massoud's uncle) were present in Fahim Ramin's office. Everyone kept saying that it was useless to resist the Taliban, because there were no opportunities in Panjshir, and they advised Ahmad Massoud to go abroad. They said that first, you need to leave the country, analyze the situation, then prepare for resistance.
"When everyone fled" - a memoir of General Asef Delavar
But the only person who said that Ahmad should go to Panjshir and declare resistance was Hussain Sayed. He said that the people are ready to resist and are waiting for his decision. “Even if we fail or are killed, the resistance will continue, but if we run away, history will never forgive us, and this will be a historical shame for the son of Ahmadshah Massoud. Whatever happens, we must go to Panjshir," he said.
Note: Hussein Sayed (in the photo) joined jihad from a young age and later participated in the First Resistance under the command of Ahmadshah Massoud.
But others insisted that the young emir should not make a mistake and make the right choice (!), because there are no weapons in Panjshir, except for a few light guns and tanks, which are not suitable in the mountains. “There is nothing to fight. There are shells, but no guns. There are people, but no weapons, no food in sufficient quantities. Although humans have spirit, they have no combat experience. Panjshir has not fought at all for the last 20 years,” he was told.
The young Emir said: “The Taliban will certainly attack Panjshir, but only from there we can try to resolve the issue through negotiations, otherwise not only Panjshir, but also the resistance will be defeated forever, and Afghanistan will be lost. Well, who is ready to come with me?”
Everyone agreed, including Bismillahan Muhammadi. After he ordered to provide a helicopter for Ahmad Massoud, at the last moment he told him: "I will also go with you." But the young Emir asked him to stay because he is the Minister of Defense and is responsible to the people and the soldiers. Bismillakhan promised him that he would definitely come to Panjshir.
(The author of these lines wonders why Bismillakhan Muhammadi never shared this story with the people in order to get rid of the evil tongues of his ill-wishers. There were other witnesses to this conversation. He himself showed no interest in sharing this story with me).
Thus, at about 4 p.m., Ahmad Massoud, together with his companions, boarded a helicopter and went to Panjshir. The helicopter was attacked from below in the area of Bagram Airport. He was fired from a machine gun or a PC. The helicopter was unharmed, but was those shots intentional or accidental? Logically, in a territory that was completely under the control of the Taliban, this event could not have been an accident.
But the most interesting thing is that after the flight of Ahmad Massoud's helicopter towards Panjshir, the work of the Kabul airport returned to normal. The blocking of communications by the Americans was lifted, the phones started working, and the planes took off.
The Pakistani plane immediately flew to Pakistan after it became known that Ahmad Massoud would not go. The flight lasted 40 minutes. When the passengers arrived at the Islamabad airport, Ahmad Wali Massoud looked at his mobile phone. There was a reply to a message he sent to his nephew from the Kabul airport. Ahmad wrote: "Uncle, I have made my choice, I will go to Panjshir and continue my resistance."
Ahmad Wali said to his companion, “God bless us. Ahmad left for Panjshir, now let's see what will happen.”
Plane of death: how did the plan to kill Ahmad Massoud fail? - 2
