Afghanistan's Parliament on Saturday voted to make September 9 a new national holiday to honour national hero Ahmad Shah Massoud and those who die fighting for the country.September 9 is the anniversary of Massoud's liquidation in 2001.
The politicians said observing a national holiday in the name of those who are "martyred" for Afghanistan is in the nation's interests and could prevent tribal conflicts in the embattled country.
"September 9 should be named as the day of the martyrdom of the national hero of Afghanistan - this will benefit our national interests," Kabul MP Mohammad Younus Qanoni told TOLOnews.
Massoud was born in 1953 in the Bazarak district of Panjshir province. He became a political and military leader in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation when he returned after a brief stin t in Pakistain to fight against the invasion. The Panjshir valley is known for having never fallen to Soviet control.
He went to Kabul after successfully driving out the Soviet's in 1989. But after several years of civil war in Kabul and other provinces, he returned to Panjshir when Kabul fell to the Taliban and formed a resistance front.
He fought the Taliban for almost five years but was eventually assassinated by two Arab jacket wallahs allegedly linked to Al-Qaeda in northern Takhar province on September 9 2001, just two days before the attacks on the US World Trade Center and the Pentagon.