Prepared By :

Meer Balach
Yasir Tariq
Muzzamil Shah Watanyar
Hamdullah

Submitted to :
Sir Matehullah
Subject :
International Relations

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A study of role of Pakistan’s military establishment in sabotaging
Afghan Saur revolution and supporting radical Islamic elements
during Afghan-soviet conflict.

Introduction:
After industrial revolution Capitalist system was introduced in London based on market
economy which was later on adopted by many western countries. This was criticized by
socialists of that era as they considered this as an economic and political system based on human
exploitation .Another ideology was presented by Karl Marx and Fredric Engels known as
Marxism/socialism .in 1917 Bolshevik revolution led by Vladimir Lenin took place in Russia
(reed, 1919). After World War II the world became bipolar where USA &USSR became super
powers (chatterjee, 2010). This was the era of revolutions and expansions. Following the trend,
on 27-28 April, 1978 a socialist revolution took place in Afghanistan Led by khalq democratic
gwand (Peoples Democratic party) and Parcham Gwand (Parcham Party) . The revolution in the
beginning was not resisted by locals of Afghanistan but later on in some parts of the country it
was seen. Herat was the first to show resistance (herat pasoon) and later on Kabul also resisted
(kakar, 2013) . This resistance of Kabul is famous as (Kabul pasoon). Pakistan’s military
establishment tried their level best to interfere in Afghanistan and gain their strategic goals and
this has been admitted so many times by top officials of Pakistan. Pakistan had started interfaring
in Afghanistan even before the revolution as in 1975 Gulbadin Hikmatyar , Rabbani , Siaf ,
Gillani Ahmed Shah Masood etc were called to GHQ Rawalpindi (kakar, 2013).They started to
interfere with more intensity after 1978 revolution

A retired brigadier of Pakistan Army Muhammad yousaf in the preface of his book “Afghanistan
the bear trap” writes that ISI chief general Akhtar Abdur Rehman’s most famous cry was “Kabul
Must Burn” (Yousaf, 1992) .General Hameed Gul , General Parvez Musharaf , General Athar
Abbas , General Qamar Bajwa had openly confessed on different occasions that they trained and
supported Radical Islamic Elements and the same elements were there to sabotage the Saur
revolution .

Problem statement:
Pakistan and Afghanistan have been accusing one another of interference from the day first . in
1978 when Saur revolution happened in Afghanistan, it was seen that Pakistan started
interference on large scale .Chief of Pakistan’s army staff General zia ul haq openly supported
mujahedeen of Afghanistan and called the war “the war of Islam”. Though some afghan
nationalists like Professor bahaudin Majrooh were also resisting but they were not as favoured by
Pakistan as islamists were favoured . Pakistani generals have claimed that so many times that

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they supported mujahedeen because Pakistan was supposed to be the next target of communist
USSR (Yousaf, 1992)

Research Questions:
1. Why Pakistan opposed Saur Revolution in Afghanistan?
2. When Pakistan did started supporting radical Islamic elements?
3. What were the gains of Afghan jihad for Pakistan?

Literature Review:
On this topic numerous authors have written books and almost every writer has tried hislevel
best to present the events in favor of his point of view. One of the famous book that has covered
this topic is GHOST WARS by Steve coll. New York times glorifies this book by saying
“Riveting … the finest historical narrative so far on the origins of al al-Qaeda”. The role of
some mujahedeen have been bitterly exposed here in this book but the writer seems to lack some
basic knowledge as he declares “Aimal kasi” a baloch (coll, 20004) . Similarly many other gaps
have been observed here .

A book named KISAN DAFTAR of great pashtun leader Sher Ali Bacha has been recently
published which has tried to put a glance on the effects of Saur revolution on the struggle of
working class of Pakistan but one thing more has to be checked here and that is the use of this
class struggle by Pakistan against pashtun Nationalism in Pakistan. Sher Ali bacha the writer of
this book later on became a nationalist and accepted that they were used involuntarily by state for
sabotaging genuine national struggle.

A famous afghan intellectual DrHassan Kakar had his PHD on the Afghan- soviet war which
was later on published by him with the name ‫ افغان شوري جګړه‬Dr hassan has very deeply
discussed almost every event of revolution from the roots of Hikmatyar to the roots of Babrak
karmil and DrNajeeb has been discussed. The writer has shown extreme anger at some points i.e
he has called Aslam watanJar a Traitor (Aslam watanKhwar) (kakar, 2013)

Some local writers has also tried to work on this A book named (Watan ya Kafan) has been
written by a pashtun from Pakistan and the book has been known as one of nutritious books in
pashtun Nationalist circles of Pakistan as it has put some serious allegations on Bacha Khan
Family and Mahmood khan Achakzai. It is also claimed that Pakistan’s military establishment
promoted such literature in order to defame pashtun Nationalist political leaders.

Revolutionary Afghanistan by Beverly male has written a master piece on Afghan revolution
which has discussed that how the struggle for revolution started and differences of people’s

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Democratic Party Afghanistan and Parcham Party caused political instability. It is claimed by
many people that author has glorified one of the leaders too much

A Retired brigadier named Muhammad Youssef has written a book named (Afghanistan the bear
trap) defeat of a super power and Ahmed Rizwan Tarar has written the book ‫افغانستان جھاد کی داستا‬
in which all events have been quoted from Cornell imam. Both of these book has very well
explained the role of ISI and Pakistan’s govt in Afghan war but yet both of them represents a
bised view.

Hypothesis:
Pakistan supported Mujahedeen and played their part in sabotaging saur revolution for their
Political and economic goals not for the sake of God and Islam.

Research Methodology:
will be using Qualitative research methodology because we have to analyse text and focused
group discussions.

Theoretical framework:
The theory we will be applying here is “Realism”

Chapterization:
Chapter 1 contains introduction which tells about background of the study and Problem
statement

Chapter 2 have literature review , hypothesis and research questions

Chapter 3 consists of research methodology and the theory we will be applying in research

Chapter 4 will be discussing findings of the research

Chapter 5 contains refrences and bibliography

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Refrences:

Bibliography
chatterjee, a. (2010). International relations today. dehli: Dorling kindersley.

coll, S. (20004). Ghost wars.

kakar, D. h. (2013). Afghan soviet conflict.

reed, J. (1919). Ten days that shook the world. moscow.

Yousaf, M. (1992). Afghanistan the bear trap.