Ali Beheshti

Sayyid Ali Beheshti was a leader of the Shia Hazara ethnic group of Afghanistan, who became president of the Shura-yi Enqelabi-yi Ettefaq-i Islami-yi Afghanistan. Born in Bamyan province, Beheshti was educated in Iraq where he became a modarres. In the 1960s he returned to Afghanistan and founded a madrasah in Waras, which became his stronghold. He also was a speaker at the Afghan parliament, until the communists took power in 1978.