Ahmad Zia Massoud احمد ضیاء مسعود
First Vice President of Afghanistan
In office 7 December 2004 – 19 November 2009
President	Hamid Karzai
Born	1 May 1956 (1956-05-01) (age 53) Ghazni province of Afghanistan
Political party	Jamiat-e Islami (Islamic Society)
Religion	Sunni Islam

Ahmad Zia Massoud (b. May 1, 1956) was the first Vice President of Afghanistan in the first elected administration of President Hamid Karzai from December 2004 to November 2009. He is the younger brother of Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Contents 1 Bio 1.1 Early years 1.2 Fighting against the Soviets 1.3 Afghan civil war 1.4 Fall of the Taliban 2 Assassination attempts 3 Family 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Bio

[edit] Early years

Zia was born in Muqur, which is in Ghazni province of Afghanistan. He attended Esteqlal High School, the French sponsored school in Kabul, for his primary and secondary studies, and then entered the Polytechnical University of Kabul.^{[citation needed]} However, he left school in his third year, in 1978, caught up in the tumultuous events in the country, and joined the mujahideen with his brother Ahmad Shah, in the Panjsher Valley north of Kabul.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Fighting against the Soviets

From 1978 to 1981, Ahmad Zia directed Qarargah of Paryan in Haut-Panjsher, and directed resistance in the entire valley.^{[citation needed]} Between 1981 and April 1992, his commander (Ahmed Shah Massoud) named him special representative of his Jamiat-e-Islami party to Peshawar, Pakistan, where the seven principal parties of the Afghan resistance met.^{[citation needed]} Also during this period he maintained and increased contacts with political leaders of all the Afghan resistance movement, including diplomatic circles and international organizations; in addition, he traveled abroad to plead the case of the mujahideen.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Afghan civil war

After the fall of the Soviet-backed communist regime, Burhanuddin Rabbani, his father-in-law, chose him to be the advisor and special representative of the Islamic State of Afghanistan.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Fall of the Taliban

In December 2001, President Hamid Karzai named him ambassador to the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin; in February 2004 his functions were extended to include the Republic of Armenia, and then in July of that year, Belarus, and Moldavia as well.^{[citation needed]}

On July 26, 2004, Karzai announced that he had chosen Ahmad Zia as his running mate over Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim in the October 9, 2004 presidential elections.^[1][2]. However, Karzai dropped Massoud in his ticket in the 2009 presidential elections in favor of Mohammad Qasim Fahim.

[edit] Assassination attempts

While campaigning in the 2004 elections a bomb was detonated at a political rally in the northern Afghan city of Feyzabad. Two people were killed but Massoud emerged unscathed.^[3]

[edit] Family

Ahmad Zia Massoud is married and has four children: three girls and a boy.

[edit] See also

• Politics of Afghanistan
• List of leaders of Afghanistan

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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