KABUL, Aug 19: President Hamid Karzai led Afghanistan’s Independence Day celebrations on Sunday with a call to the country’s young people to educate themselves to preserve their freedom.

Karzai told tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital’s sports stadium that Afghanistan’s youth should “spend every second of their lives in learning” to maintain the country’s cherished independence.

“To maintain Afghanistan’s independence, the youth of the country -- the youngsters -- must spend every second of their lives in learning, and better learning,” Karzai told the gathering.

An enthusiastic Karzai asked the crowd to repeat after him “we want to learn and live better.”

“Do you want to learn, become engineers, doctors and experts?” Karzai asked the crowd. “Say “yes” loudly, “yes,”” Karzai exhorted.

The crowd applauded and shouted: “Yes, yes, we do.” Reiterating condemnation of Taliban attacks on the 88th anniversary of full sovereignty from Britain, he warned there were still “plots against our independence by the enemies of this land”.

Karzai denounced “the killing of innocent people -- men, women and children,” referring to the 15 victims, including 11 civilians, killed in a Taliban-linked suicide bombing in southern Afghanistan on Saturday.

Although Afghanistan was never a full colony of Britain, London under a treaty controlled its foreign affairs until agreeing to allow full independence on August 19, 1919.

Afghans had earlier fought three wars against the British, the first starting in 1838 and the last ending months before the 1919 agreement.

Russia invaded the country in December 1979, kicking off a 10-year rebellion that eventually forced the Red Army to withdraw in 1989. The Soviet withdrawal heralded a civil war that killed tens of thousands of civilians.—AFP