Tajikistan, Afghanistan’s northern neighbor, has awarded its third-highest civilian award, posthumously, to two former anti-Taliban Afghan political figures belonging to the Tajik ethnic group – late legendary Mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud and former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani.
However, the timing of the award–when Massoud’s own son, Ahmad Massoud, and former Afghan vice-president Amrullah Saleh are putting a fierce resistance to the Taliban in Panjshir valley–seems a signal to the Taliban.