Mohammad Fahim Dashty ( 1973 – 4 or 5 September 2021) was an Afghan journalist, politician and military official. In 2021, he served as spokesman of the

National Resistance Front of Afghanistan The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), also known as the Second Resistance, is a military alliance of former Northern Alliance members and other anti-Taliban fighters loyal to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The founder and pr ...

during the

Republican insurgency in Afghanistan The republican insurgency in Afghanistan is an ongoing armed conflict between the National Resistance Front and allied groups which fight under the banner of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on one side, and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanis ...

Biography

Born around 1973, Dashty was the nephew of Afghan politician,

Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah Abdullah ( Dari/ ps, عبدالله عبدالله, ; born as Abdullah on 5 September 1960) is an Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021, when the Afghan government w ...

, and a close associate of the family of the

Northern Alliance The Northern Alliance, officially known as the United Islamic National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( prs, جبهه متحد اسلامی ملی برای نجات افغانستان ''Jabha-yi Muttahid-i Islāmi-yi Millī barāyi Nijāt ...

leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud. He was with Massoud when the latter was killed by a suicide bombing on 9 September 2001. Dashty was badly wounded in the bombing. After the

United States invasion of Afghanistan In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operatio ...

, Dashty founded a newspaper based at

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

and became known for supporting journalists and advocating freedom of speech in Afghanistan. He was a leader of the Afghanistan National Journalist Union (ANJU) as well as a key figure in the Federation for "Afghan Journalists and Media Entities", founded in 2012. In addition, he contributed to the South Asia Press Freedom Report. In 2021, following the takeover of Afghanistan by Taliban, Dashty joined the

as a spokesman. Beforehand, he had reportedly refused offers of a government post by the Taliban. Dashty was one of the main sources of information in the Panjshir Valley as the Taliban pressed in, issuing statements on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Shortly before his death, he stated "If we die, history will write about us, as people who stood for their country till the end of the line". On 4 or 5 September 2021, Dashty was killed in combat during the Taliban offensive into Panjshir. His death was confirmed by his friend Noor Rahman Akhlaqi on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

as well as other sources. The Taliban claimed that he had died as they had advanced into

Bazarak Bāzārak is the provincial capital of Panjshir Province, in the Panjshir Valley of northeastern Afghanistan. It is a small city with a total population of 24,723 and has only three police districts ( nahias). The total land area of Bazarak city ...

, capital of the

Panjshir Province Panjshir ( Dari: , literally "Five Lions," also spelled as Panjsher) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northeastern part of the country containing the Panjshir Valley. The province is divided into seven distri ...

. In contrast, the International Federation of Journalists stated that he had died alongside General Abdul Wodo Zara at Dashtak, Anaba District. According to unspecified sources and defense analyst Babak Taghvaee, Dashty was killed by a Pakistani drone strike during the fighting. NRF officials seconded these claims, specifying that Dashty had been killed by a Pakistani drone strike at Anaba. Pakistan and the Taliban denied this, with the latter eventually claiming that Dashy had been shot during a clash between NRF commanders. Reportedly BBC Persian, in an interview with Dashty, leaked a number leading to his location. After his death, former colleagues, associates, and organizations like the ANJU, Afghanistan Independent Journalists' Association (AIJA), and the International Federation of Journalists released eulogies in his honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dashty, M. F. 1970s births 2021 deaths Afghan Tajik people 21st-century Afghan politicians Politicians of Panjshir Province Military personnel killed in the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Deaths by drone strikes