Mohammad Panah

General Mohammad Panah was a Tajik Afghanistan military commander who was loyal to Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Panah gained popularity after successfully fighting in Soviet incursions in the Panjsher Valley and northern areas of Afghanistan.

Following the withdrawal of USSR forces from Afghanistan and the subsequent collapse of the communist regime in Kabul, Panah was a commander alongside Mohammad Fahim in the northern Kabul fronts; he fought the Hezb-e-islami, Hekmatyar, and the Taliban afterwards.

He was killed in Paghman District during a Taliban offensive in Kabul.

Mohammad Panah was born in 1957 in the Sefid Chehar village of Panjshir Province.

He started his basic religious education with scholars of the time at Sefidchehr school.

At the age of 21, he was forcibly recruited as a soldier for the Soviet Union, the aggressor in a war occurring at the time, and sent to Herat Province, Afghanistan.

At the beginning of his time as a soldier, understanding the situation and wishing to fight against the communist government, Panah separated from the government forces and joined the ranks of the first Jihadist organization of the Panjshir Valley.

Under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud, he engaged in military activity against the communist regime.

In a short period of time, his military skills were noticed by others.

He seized bases and conquered military centers of the Russian army in the regions of Panjshir, Salang, Takhar, Baghlan, Parwan, and Kapisa.

In 1981, he was appointed as the commander of mobile military groups and played a role in repelling two invasions of the Red Army in the Panjshir Valley.

During the height of the attacks of the Red Army on the Panjshir valley, General Panah was in charge of the Chamalwarde Military Base, which is considered to be one of the important bases of the Mujahideen, in the war against Russia; he and the people under his command decreased the strength of Russia's forces.

Mohammad Panah was appointed as the general commander of Salangs by those in leadership positions in 1981.

During the three years of his command, he planned and carried out several operations and attacks against the forces of the Soviet Union.

With the forces under his command, he destroyed hundreds of Russian armored vehicles, looted hundreds of weapons of the aggressors, and captured dozens of Soviet officers and soldiers.

Mohammad Panah's actions in the Salang Valley became popular among the Afghan people and were considered to be a sign of bravery of the Mujahideen on a global level, causing the Red Army to refer to him by his military title and to call the Salang Valley the "Valley of Deaths."

Panah was victorious in wars against the world's largest military and was considered to be a talented and innovative commander.

The impact of General Mohammad Panah and the forces under his command on the soldiers of the Red Army and the communist government of the time caused the communist regime to put General Panah in the exclusive revolutionary court.

He was sentenced to death in absentia, which made General Mohammad Panah more popular than before with the Mujahideen and the Muslim people of Afghanistan.

In 1986, Panah went to the Baghlan province to plan and carry out attacks on the forces of the Soviet Union.

He established his command center in the mountainous areas of Nahrin, and for a year, he directed and managed the forces of the Mujahideen.

General Mohammad Panah played a role in the conquests of the Farkhar Garrison, the Kalfgan Garrison, the Nahrin Division, Taloqan, the capital of Takhar Province, and several other guerrilla operations in the northern parts of the country.

After the expulsion of the Red Army from the country and the expansion of the areas under the control of the Mojahedin, Panah, as the commander of the first unit of the central organization of the Islamic State Army of the Mojahedeen, was appointed for the conquest of the remaining areas of the Takhar province; he commanded some of the wars that led to the conquest of Khwaja Ghar, Takhar Province and KhanAbad and the Dasht Archi Districts of Kunduz Province.

General Mohammad Panah played a role in the victory of the Islamic Revolution and the conquest of Kabul.

After capturing the main centers of the regime in Jabal Siraj, Charikar and Bagram, he entered Kabul as the first commander of the Jihadi forces and strengthened the foundations of the government.

During his three years of work in the Islamic State of Afghanistan, Panah commanded forces in some of the battles fought to defend the people in the fronts of the Kapisa, Parwan, Bamyan, Baghlan and Kabul provinces.

Panah never tired of fighting for his beliefs.

Panah was killed in a battle against the Taliban on the night of 15 Mar 1995, along with two of his comrades, Dr. Hammad Amin and Mohammad Irfan.