More than 20,000 Afghans gathered in Kabul today to commemorate the second anniversary of the murder of military commander Ahmad Shah Masood.
He was killed by al-Qaeda two days before the September 11th attacks on the United States.
The anniversary comes as Mr Masood's successors face increasing pressure to relinquish control of the country's defence ministry and security apparatus and share power with other factions.
Mr Masood was the military and political leader of the Northern Alliance, a coalition of factions that fought a long resistance struggle against the fundamentalist Taliban movement that sheltered Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
Since the Northern Alliance toppled the Taliban with US help in 2001, party members have encouraged a personality cult to grow up around Mr Masood, and his pictures dominate the capital, outnumbering those of President Hamid Karzai.
Mr Karzai himself led the praise for Masood in Kabul's national stadium, speaking opposite a massive portrait of the bearded guerrilla leader wearing his trademark woollen hat, or pakul.
"We should feel proud about the anniversary of the martyr who sacrificed himself to fight terrorism and the Soviet Union," Mr Karzai said.
Mr Masood was a leading member of the mujahideen [holy warriors] who fought Soviet occupation in the 1980s before squabbling among themselves and reducing Kabul to ruins after the Russians were driven out.