Defection of Najibullah's Brother
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Keesing's Record of World Events (formerly Keesing's Contemporary Archives), Volume 34, March, 1988 Afghanistan, Page 35788 © 1931-2006 Keesing's Worldwide, LLC - All Rights Reserved. Defection of Najibullah's brother The New York Times of Nov. 24 reported that Dr Najibullah's younger brother, Mr Sidiq (or Mr Sidiqullah), had recently defected to the rebel forces of Mr Ahmed Shah Masood, the Jamiaat-i-Islami field commander for the Panjsher valley. Some reports claimed that Mr Sidiq had been a vice-president of the Afghan National Bank. Dr Najibullah on Dec. 2 confirmed his brother's defection, stating that Mr Sidiq had “severed his relations with his home and parents 15 years ago”. The Hong Kong- based magazine Asiaweek on Dec. 31 published an interview in which Mr Sidiq said that he was likely to seek asylum in the West. Pakistan claimed that aircraft of the Afghan Air Force had on Feb. 26–27, 1987, attacked villages in North Gaziristan and Kurram agencies (both major staging areas for mujaheddin arms supply caravans situated in North-West Frontier Province adjacent to the eastern Afghan provinces of Paktia and Nangarhar) killing some 70 people–both Afghan refugees and Pakistanis–and injuring up to 200 others. Further repeated air attacks by Afghan aircraft in the same area in late March resulted in a high number of casualties. According to the Independent of March 28, 167 had people died, of whom 85 were refugees, and a further 215 were wounded. In response to the attacks Pakistan reportedly moved ground-to-air defence systems to the Afghan border and on March 30 two Pakistani fighter aircraft engaged and shot down an Afghan ground-attack jet flying in Pakistani air space. Afghanistan claimed that this aircraft was an AN-26 carrying 40 civilians on an internal flight over Paktia province. Karachi radio reported on April 16 that an “Afghan combat plane” had that day been shot down over Miram Shah (North Waziristan agency) by a Pakistani interceptor aircraft. Pakistan claimed on April 29 that one of its fighter jets had that day been shot down over Miram Shah while engaging an Afghan fighter. Afghanistan subsequently claimed that the Pakistani fighter was a US-made F-16 which, having crossed into Khost district, had failed to heed a warning. According to the Washington Post of May 3 the loss of a Pakistani F- 16 (which had “assumed almost mythical proportions as a symbol of the country's ability to defend itself”) would have a far-reaching impact by undercutting Pakistani confidence. Bakhtar and Tass in late July and August reported very serious clashes, resulting in thousands of deaths, in Pakistan's Kurram agency between armed detachments of the Turi and Bangashe tribes and mujaheddin guerrillas (supported by the Pakistani armed forces). According to a Tass report of Aug. 7 the tribes had taken up arms in protest at Pakistani attempts to relocate them and use their land (which bordered Afghanistan) as a rebel base. Kabul home service reported on March 13, 1987, that Afghanistan and Pakistan had exchanged a number of prisoners on Feb. 20. Pakistan had released two Afghans held in Peshawar, one of whom was Mr Abdol Aziz, described as a deputy vice-president of the Afghan National Bank. In turn, Afghanistan had released three prisoners including Mr Patrick Sales, described as a “recognized CIA [US Central Intelligence Agency] agent”. Dr Najibullah paid visits to the Soviet Union from July 19 to Aug. 10, 1987, and again in November 1987 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution [see 35579 A]. At a press conference in Moscow on Nov. 6 Dr Najibullah claimed that 100,000 refugees had returned to Afghanistan in 1987 and that 30,000 rebels had laid down their arms. He reiterated that the PDPA did not lay claim to a monopoly of power and was prepared to accept a form of coalition as a basis for governing Afghanistan. On the question of the withdrawal of Soviet troops Dr Najibullah said that such a withdrawal was effectively under way, withSoviet forces currently stationed in only 18 provinces. The Soviet Union reported two attacks in March and April 1987 by Afghan guerrillas into the Soviet republic of Tadjikistan, which bordered both Afghanistan and China's Xinjiang autonomous region. Religious and ethnic affinity between Afghanistan and Tadjikistan had concerned the Soviet authorities for some time. The Washington Post of April 13 reported that the mujaheddin had recently increased their infiltration of Tadjikistan in an attempt to arouse Islamic sentiment. On March 11 Tass had reported the recent trial and imprisonment of Mr Abdulo Saydov, a “self-styled mullah” in the Kurgan-Tyube district of Tadjikistan who was identified as “the spiritual leader of the underground sect of Vakhabists” (a fundamentalist Islamic sect). The Soviet Army newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda reported on April 3 that an Afghan rebel rocket attack on the border town of Pyandzh on March 8 had killed one person and injured two others. Soviet border guards, Afghan troops and “personnel of the limited contingent of Soviet troops” in Afghanistan had participated in fighting off the guerrillas, who were described in Pravda of April 2 as being members of the Hizb-i-Islami (Hekmatyar) group. (Hekmatyar reportedly made a number of speeches in early 1987 calling for the “liberation” of the Soviet Moslem- dominated republics.) Tass on April 18 reported that Afghan rebels had on April 8– 9 crossed the Pyandzh river into Tadjikistan where they attacked a detachment of Soviet border guards (two of whom were killed). The report stated that the rebels “retreated in disarray” after “heavy casualties” had been inflicted upon them. The Times carried an AFP report onApril 22 which claimed that, according to Western diplomats, Soviet troops were taking “extensive reprisals” in northern Afghanistan after the rebel incursion. The Soviet State security Committee (KGB) chairman Gen. Viktor Chebrikov visited Tadjikistan in late April 1987, devoting “particular attention” to ensuring the security of the republic's border and enhancing the military skills of the border troops (which were not part of the regular Soviet Army but were attached to the KGB's Chief Border Guards Directorate). The Independent's Moscow correspondent on June 13 referred to a third incursion by rebel guerrillas into Soviet territory which had occurred on May 17. The Sunday Times of Sept. 20 reported that the CIA had halted the supply of Stinger missiles [see also above] to guerrillas of the Hizb-i-Islami (Khales) group after two of the group's commanders had sold 16 of a batch of 32 missile systems to Iran for US$ 1,000,000. The Times of Oct. 12 quoted “impeccable” sources in Quetta (Pakistan to support its claim that the two commanders had devised an elaborate scheme to make it appear that the Iranians had forcibly confiscated the weapons in western Afghanistan. The Far Eastern Economic Review of Nov. 5 reported that Stinger batteries and cases had been found on an Iranian boat captured by the US Navy in the Gulf on Sept. 21 [see page 35599]. In a subsequent public disclosure of a US intelligence report, the then US Defence Secretary, Mr Caspar Weinberger, stated that the missiles had almost certainly been stolen from the rebels by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Mr Khales initially denied all knowledge of the incident, but later endorsed the Weinberger version. It was widely accepted that large quantities of arms deliveries to the mujaheddin were siphoned off, some for use by the Pakistani Armed Forces and some for trading in the arms bazaars of Pakistan's tribal areas borderingAfghanistan. Reports in the Independent during May 1987 linked the British government and MI6 (the British secret intelligence service, whose existence was not officially acknowledged) with secret shipments of Blowpipe anti-aircraft missiles (made by Shorts in Belfast) to guerrillas of the Hizb-i-Islami (Khales) group. Mrs Margaret Thatcher, the UK Prime Minister, had met with Mr Abdul Haq, a leading figure in the Khales faction of the Hizb-i-Islami, in London in March 1986 [see page 34868]. According to mujaheddin sources two US journalists, Mr Lee Shapiro and Mr Jim Lindelof, were killed on Oct. 11, 1987, in an attack by pro-government forces operating near Kabul. The two journalists had reportedly been travelling with members of the Hizb-i- Islami group and had been making a documentary film on the war in Afghanistan. The Independent of Dec. 24 reported that Mr Andy Skrzypkowiak, a British cameraman working in Afghanistan for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), had recently been killed by rebels. Subsequent reports suggested that Mr Skrzypkowiak had been murdered by Hizb-i-Islami members. The Hizb-i-Islami group (which reportedly received the largest share of the mujaheddin's foreign funding) had developed a reputation during 1987 as being the most undisciplined of the rebel groups. Bakhtar reported on Dec. 25 that Herr Osman Demir, a West German, had recently been captured by the Afghan Army in Kandahar province where he had been training “counter-revolutionaries” in weapons use. The next day Soviet television announced that Herr Demir was an employee of the military intelligence wing of the West German intelligence services (Militärischer Abschirmdienst–MAD), a claim categorically denied by the WestGerman government. On Dec. 30 Bakhtar confirmed that Signor Fausto Biloslavo, an Italian correspondent with the Trieste-based Albatross Press news agency, was being held by the Afghan security service after being captured in Laghman province with members of an “irreconcilable extremist group”. Tass reported on March 16, 1988, that Signor Biloslavo had that day been sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of spying for a foreign power in Afghanistan.