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Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai (C) speaks with U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalizad (R), as General Abdul Rashid Dostum looks on during the celebration of the Norouz holiday of spring equinox and the start of the New Year in Mazar-i-Sharif March 21, 2002. The ancient holiday dating back to Zoroastrian times was celebrated in this commercial city for the first time since it was banned by the purist Taliban movement as non-Muslim in 1997 |
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Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, right, listens to Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum as they arrive to celebrate the Persian New Year in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan on Thursday, March 21, 2002. The holiday marks the beginning of spring and is celebrated in Afghanistan and across Central Asia. |
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Afghans from across the country surge forward to touch the flagpole raised to signal the start of Persian New Year at the blue mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan on Thursday, March 21, 2002. The flag is the battle standard of Hazrat Ali, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, whose symbolic tomb is in the mosque. |
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Afghans stay in the streets around the blue mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan to get a view of ceremonies marking the Persian New Year on Thursday, March 21, 2002. The holiday marks the beginning of spring and is celebrated in Afghanistan and across Central Asia. |
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Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, right, and Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum point to the crowds of tens of thousands of Afghans who gathered to celebrate the Persian New Year in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan on Thursday, March. 21, 2002. The holiday marks the beginning of spring and is celebrated in Afghanistan and across Central Asia. |
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Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, right, talks to Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, center, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, left, during a celebration of the Persian New Year in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan on Thursday, March. 21, 2002. The holiday marks the beginning of spring and is celebrated in Afghanistan and across Central Asia. |
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A U.S. special forces officer, identified only as Captain Mark, left, presents northern alliance commander Gen. Rashid Dostum, right, with a plaque, at a ceremony at a residence outside Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2001. Dostum Wednesday bid farewell to American special forces troops who joined his fighters in the battle to seize this city from the Taliban. |
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The honorable Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan |
