Page 373 - Leadership in the Indian Army

"Did you hear?" he says, panting a little. "They killed him. Ahmad Shah
Massoud. He's dead."

"What?"

From the doorway, Tariq tells her what he knows.

"They say he gave an interview to a pair of journalists who claimed

they were Belgians originally from Morocco. As they're talking, a bomb
hidden in the video camera goes off. Kills Massoud and one of the

journalists. They shoot the other one as he tries to run. They're saying

now the journalists were probably Al-Qaeda men."

Laila remembers the poster of Ahmad Shah Massoud that Mammy had

nailed to the wall of her bedroom. Massoud leaning forward, one

eyebrow cocked, his face furrowed in concentration, as though he was
respectfully listening to someone. Laila remembers how grateful Mammy

was that Massoud had said a graveside prayer at her sons' burial, how

she told everyone about it. Even after war broke out between his faction

and the others, Mammy had refused to blame him. He's a good man, she
used to say.

He wants peace. He wants to rebuild Afghanistan. But they won 't let

him. They just won 't let him. For Mammy, even in the end, even after

everything went so terribly wrong and Kabul lay in ruins, Massoud was

still the Lion of Panjshir.

Laila is not as forgiving- Massoud's violent end brings her no joy, but

she remembers too well the neighborhoods razed under his watch, the