Afghanistan marked on Sunday the week of Martyrs which coincides with the 17th anniversary of martyrdom of Afghan National Hero Ahmad Shah Massoud.

The martyrdom anniversary Massoud followed as thousands of young men brandishing knives and assault rifles took to the streets and fired indiscriminately, mostly into the air.

Police said they arrested nearly a hundred of the marchers and seized some vehicles, but many saw the report as a move to show that government has control over the situation.

In the meantime, addressing the Martyrs’ Week event in the Loya Jirga tent in Kabul, the Chief Executive, Abdullah Abdullah paid tribute to Massoud  and called the ongoing chaos in the city contrary to the wills of the national hero.

Earlier in the day, CE Abdullah laid wreath to the Resistance Monument in Massoud Square in Kabul to honor the sacrifices of the national hero.

The former Afghan President, Hamid Karzai also urged the supporters of Massoud to give flowers to people instead of firing and riding in convoys of motorcycles and vehicles in the city.

Earlier today, security forces said they opened fire and wounded an attempted suicide bomber who wanted to blow himself up in a crowd of marchers at the memorial monument built for Massoud close to the U.S. embassy.

Hours after a suicide bomber has blown himself up close to a procession commemorating the anniversary of Massoud, killing at least seven and wounding 25.

Ahmad Shah Massoud was an important figure in the ’90s Afghan civil war. He led the resistance against the Taliban until his assassination.

The former resistance leader Ahmad Shah who had played vital role in defeating the former Soviet Union and blocking Taliban onslaught to capture Afghanistan was killed in a suicide attack conducted by three Arabs who disguised themselves as journalists during an interview in Afghanistan’s northern Takhar province on Sept. 9, 2001.

Masoud is no less a hero in Afghanistan. Massoud’s image can be found plastered on shop windows and car windshields, as much a symbol of pride in Afghanistan’s mujahidin past as an allegiance to his anti-Taliban bent.

One of Kabul’s biggest intersections is named after him, and September 9, the anniversary of his death, is a national holiday.

Massoud’s supporters, many of them hailing from his anti-Taliban United Islamic Front, which has now been reconstituted in Western parlance as the Northern Alliance, hold that had he not been killed, Afghanistan would have been in far better shape.