BAMYAN - Afghanistan’s only Olympian athlete today urged Bamyan youth to keep playing for peace during the final match of the month-long Bamyan Peace Day Football Tournament.

Taekwondo champion Rohullah Nikpa, who also served as an ambassador for the tournament, told the Peace Day crowd in Bamyan’s Mazari Square that “peace paves the way towards a society’s development.”

In addition to United Nations staff, Bamyan Education Department Head Mohammad Reza Ada, Culture and Information Department Head Ibrahim Akbary, Deputy Police Chief Nekpai and Governor’s Executive Secretary Sabira Nawazi attended the ceremony.

Kicking off the day after Eid ul Fitr, the football tournament pitted 24 teams from the villages of Bamyan city playing against each leading up to the championship match on International Peace Day.

Co-organized with the Bamyan Olympic Sub-Directorate, the Bamyan Football Federation and the Youth Information and Contact Center (YICC), the football tournament aimed to highlight the attainment of peace through sports.
Earlier in the day, Nikpa visited the Bamyan Peace Wall, a mural of colourful peace images and messages painted by 25 schoolgirls and 25 boys. 

By UNAMA Bamyan