Slain Afghan Leader Is Honored at Memorial

About 150 Southern California Afghans gathered in Santa Ana on Sunday to pay tribute to the assassinated leader of the rebel Northern Alliance at a religious ceremony marking the 40th day after his burial.

Many who attended the service for Ahmed Shah Masoud, who led the military fight against the Taliban, said it will take more than his assassination and the execution of a second opposition hero just days earlier to defeat them.

“The demise of the leader does not mean the demise of hope,” said Mohammad Siddiq, 63, of San Diego, former head of the government’s media office in Afghanistan who attended Sunday’s service in a Ramada Inn conference room.

He and others paid tribute through readings from the Koran, special prayers and speeches that memorialized Masoud’s legacy.

“No one will forget him,” Siddiq said. “No one will forget his ideas. He was the symbol of unity, of freedom, of modern life.”

Pictures of Masoud, most in army fatigues, lined the room. Mourners sat in folding chairs, men on one side, women, their heads covered in scarves, on the other.

Masoud was killed two days before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

On Friday, the Taliban captured and killed another military hero, Abdul Haq, a commander who became a legendary freedom fighter during Afghanistan’s war against communism. In recent months, he had been working closely with the exiled Afghan king to create a broad-based government.

Although the memorial was organized long before the second killing, some took the opportunity to recall both men.

Masoud’s followers were largely Tajik, and Haq’s were Pushtun. But both fought the Soviet invasion and communism; both hoped for democracy.

In many ways, their deaths are inspiring unity among Afghans in the United States who realize that they must stand in solidarity.

“We are Afghans,” Siddiq said. “We are one nation.”

Laguna Hills resident Hasan Nouri, a friend of Haq who attended the service, said the Taliban have targeted the wrong people. Haq’s execution, Nouri said, was a “great mistake.”

“It’s a suicidal action,” Nouri said, adding that it would probably inspire many Afghans to fight the Taliban and push for a democratic government.

After two decades of war, many Afghans took news of the deaths in stride, almost as if it were expected. Who is next, they wondered?

“You keep going,” said Lida Ahmadzai, 28, of Irvine, who explained that she knows Afghanistan only as a country at war. Her brother died fighting the Soviet invasion. “We learn to live with a lot of unexpected situations.”