There are other significant dates in modern Afghan history too
As now 9/11 may be remembered for yet another reason – that is the final withdrawal of US and NATO forces from Afghanistan – many people in the West are not very enthusiastic with the choice of the date by the Joe Biden administration. The argument is that the exit of the western forces by September 11, 2021 may in history, in a way, somewhat dilute the tragedy of September 11, 2001.
True, it was the then President Barack Obama who initiated the move to withdraw majority of troops during his term yet it was the Donald Trump administration that signed an agreement with the Taliban last year fixing May 1, 2021 as the date for the withdrawal of the last batch of 2,500 US and 7,000 NATO as well as Australian, New Zealander and Georgian troops.
Anyway, apart from 9/11 there are at least three dates which are of utmost significance for Afghanistan before the Taliban takeover of the country on September 27, 1996.
Though the western writers and journalists often end up only holding the Taliban and Islamists responsible for the present mess in the country, the truth is that the Communists and secular forces had also seriously let down the people much before them by indulging in bloody quarrel among themselves leading to killing of all the top brass of the movement which led to the failure of the Red revolution.
The history of half a century of Afghanistan cannot be complete without mentioning the overthrow of the monarchy of King Zahir Shah by his own cousin and former Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud Khan on July 17, 1973. The King fled to Rome where he lived only to return in 2002 months after the Taliban were forced out of the country by the western powers.
Daoud became the President and declared the country a Republic. Unlike Zahir, he was tilted towards the neighbouring Soviet Union.
But the then Communist Soviet Union had a different design. On April 27, 1978 Noor Mohammad Taraki, with the help of Moscow, brought about what is called the Saur Revolution. Daoud, his family members and many other top leaders were brutally killed. Taraki was the general secretary of People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan formed after the merger of Khalq and Parcham factions of the Communists in 1977.
It needs to be mentioned that Daoud in 1973 himself came to power with the help of the Communists.
The Saur Revolution took place just between the two significant developments in the region – the coup of July 5, 1977 which brought General Zia-ul-Haq to power in Pakistan replacing Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and February 11, 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. So the region was passing through a period of upheaval.
But the Communists were first to mess up the things in the country when they started quarrelling among themselves leading to the killing of many top leaders and thousands of others in the factional fight. On September 14, 1979 Hafizullah Amin, the foreign minister and subsequently the then PM of Taraki and the second most important person, took over removing the latter. Taraki was brutally executed on October 8 the same year.
Interestingly, both Taraki and Amin came from the Khalq faction of the ever-quarrelling PDPA. As if that was not enough on December 27, 1979 the Soviet Union sent over one lakh troops to Afghanistan and got Babrak Karmal, a leading light of Parcham faction of the PDPA, installed as the head of the country. This time Amin was killed.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan when the western world was still celebrating Christmas came as a big surprise. Thus, 17 July, 1973, 27 April, 1978 and 27 December, 1979 are three very significant dates in modern Afghan history.
But things did not improve even after the presence of Soviet army in Afghanistan. Now the power struggle started between Babrak Karmal and his fellow Parchamite, Dr Najibullah. The Soviet Union could not manage this contradiction, which was initially started by Moscow itself.
Finally on September 30, 1987 Dr Najibullah seized power from Karmal, who years later died in Moscow.
But by then the Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had made up his mind to withdraw Soviet forces after the mounting casualties in war with the Mujahideen which started in 1979 itself. Najibullah tried to persuade the Soviets not to withdraw but failed.
As a damage limitation exercise, he offered olive branch to the Mujahideen and introduced privatisation. But he failed in his efforts forcing him to resign on April 16, 1992. He took shelter in the United Nations office in Kabul.
He was however executed after the Taliban take-over of Afghanistan four years later on September 27, 1996.
Thus, he was the lone leading light of the Communists to be killed either by Mujahideen or Taliban – rest of them were killed in the infighting among themselves.
The Mujahideen took over Kabul after the fall of Dr Najibullah. In fact, another phase of struggle started for the control of Kabul; this time between Gulbuddin Hekmatyar-led Hizb-e-Islami and Ahmad Shah Masood, a powerful leader of Jamiat-e-Islami. He was assassinated just two days before 9/11 suicide bombing of World Trade Centre and Pentagon.
The deadlock continued till the Taliban swept to power getting rid of Hekmatyar on September 27, 1996.
The Taliban made Kandahar as their headquarters as Kabul was close to Panjsheer Valley where Masood, a Tajik leader, still had control.
Masood’s killing and two days later the subsequent bombing of Twin Towers and Pentagon came as a shot in arm for the Taliban, who had given shelter to the Al Qaeda leadership. But that was short-lived. On October 7, the US and NATO operation started and by December 17, the western force entered Kabul and installed a government of Northern Alliance.
But the US and NATO failed to fully destroy Taliban. Two decades later the West finally decided to withdraw by September 11 leaving behind the fear of uncertainty.
So far, the infighting within the Communists in Afghanistan is concerned, one can draw some parallel with the present-day factional quarrel within the Communists in Nepal. Here too the two Communist parties – Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) – merged to become the Nepal Communist Party on May 17, 2018. But by December 2020, it got split. The difference in Nepal is that they got elected to form the government with the help of ballots and not came to power after a bloody revolution as in Afghanistan.
But unlike in Nepal, here the fight was not just within the united People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan but also within the leaders of Parcham and Khalq top brass.
For example, both Taraki and Amin were Khalqis and Karmal and Najib were from Parcham faction, yet they lost their power or were killed in infighting within their own factions of the PDPA.
Besides, in Nepal the quarrel between the two Communist parties has not turned bloody. Unlike the Soviet Union, here China is involved. Both Afghanistan and Nepal are landlocked countries and have to rely for transit ports on neighbouring countries.