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1975 Panjshir Valley uprising

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1975 Panjshir Valley uprising
Date21 June 1975[6]
Location
Panjshir, Republic of Afghanistan
Result

Afghan government victory

  • Uprising suppressed
  • Jamiat-e Islami commanders flee to Pakistan[1]
  • End of the 1975 uprisings in Afghanistan[7]
  • Daoud agrees to end support and expel anti-Pakistan militants in Afghanistan[8]
Belligerents
 Afghanistan Jamiat-e Islami
Supported by:
 Pakistan[1][2][3][4]
 Pahlavi Iran[1][5]
Commanders and leaders
Republic of Afghanistan (1973–1978) Mohammad Daoud Khan
Republic of Afghanistan (1973–1978) Abdul Karim Mustaghni
Republic of Afghanistan (1973–1978) Faiz Mohammed
Republic of Afghanistan (1973–1978) Ghulam Haidar Rasuli
Republic of Afghanistan (1973–1978) Mohammad Aslam Watanjar
Units involved
 Afghan guerrilla troops
Strength
Unknown 5,000+
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown

The 1975 Panjshir Valley uprising was an Islamist uprising led by Jamiat-e Islami against the government of Daoud Khan, and was the first ever ISI operation that took place in Afghanistan.[9][3] It was in "retaliation to Republic of Afghanistan’s proxy war and support to the militants against Pakistan".[4][10]

The Republic of Afghanistan support to anti-Pakistani militants had forced then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Naseerullah Khan Babar, then-Inspector General of the Frontier Corps in NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), to adopt a more aggressive approach towards Afghanistan. As a result, ISI, under the command of Major General Ghulam Jilani Khan set up a 5,000-strong Afghan guerrilla troop, which would include influential future leaders like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Massoud,[11] to target the Afghan government, the first large operation, in 1975, being the sponsoring of an armed rebellion in the Panjshir valley.[12] The 1975 rebellion, though unsuccessful, shook Daoud Khan and made him realize that a friendly Pakistan was in his best interests.[12][7] He started improving relations with Pakistan and made state visits there in 1976 and 1978. During the 1978 visit, he agreed to stop supporting anti-Pakistan militants and to expel any remaining militants in Afghanistan to the dismay of the Khalqists who would overthrow Daoud that same year in the Saur Revolution.[8]

Background

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In 1973, former Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan was brought to power in a coup d'état backed by the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, and the Republic of Afghanistan was established. These developments gave rise to an Islamist movement opposed to the increasing communist and Soviet influence over Afghanistan.[13] During that time, while studying at Kabul University, Massoud became involved with the Muslim Youth (Sazman-i Jawanan-i Musulman), the student branch of the Jamiat-e Islami (Islamic Society), whose chairman then was the professor Burhanuddin Rabbani. Kabul University was a center for political debate and activism during that time.[14]

The uprising

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Infuriated by the arrogance of his communist peers and Russian professors, a physical altercation between Massoud and his Russian professor led Massoud to walk out of the university, and shortly after, Kabul. Two days later, Massoud and a number of fellow militant students traveled to Pakistan where, goaded by another trainee of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Massoud agreed to take part in a coup against Daoud with his forces rising up in the Panjshir and Hekmatyar's elsewhere.[14][11] In July 1975, Massoud, with help from the Pakistani intelligence, led the first rebellion of Panjshir residents against the government of Daoud Khan.[15] While the uprising in the Panjshir began saw initial success, even taking the military garrison in Rokha, the promised support from Kabul never came and the rebellion was suppressed by the 444th Commando Battalion sending Massoud back into Pakistan (after a day hiding in Jangalak) where he would attend a secret, paramilitary ISI training center in Cherat.[16] Dissatisfied, Massoud left the center and returned to Peshawar where he committed himself to personal military studies. Massoud read Mao Tse-Tung's writings on the Long March, of Che Guevara's career, the memoirs of General de Gualle, General Võ Nguyên Giáp, Sun Tzu's Art of War, and an unnamed handbook on counterterrorism by an American general which Massoud called "the most instructive of all".[16][14]

As part of the operation, smaller Islamist detachments were sent to the nearby areas of Laghman, Nangarhar and Badakhshan; these were unsuccessful. Fighters either faced defeat after the Afghan Commando Forces were sent to the three provinces to curb the uprising or were arrested upon arrival, with neither local nor army support.[17][18]

After this failure, a "profound and long-lasting schism" within the Islamist movement began to emerge.[13] The Islamic Society split between supporters of the more moderate forces around Massoud and Rabbani, who led the Jamiat-i Islami, and more radical Islamist elements surrounding Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who founded the Hezb-i Islami.[14] The conflict reached such a point that Hekmatyar reportedly tried to kill Massoud, then 22 years old.[19][13]

The 1975 rebellion, though unsuccessful, shook Daoud Khan and made him realize that a friendly Pakistan was in his best interests.[12][7] He started improving relations with Pakistan and made state visits there in 1976 and 1978. During the 1978 visit, he agreed to stop supporting anti-Pakistan militants and to expel any remaining militants in Afghanistan.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Owen L. Sirrs, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate: Covert action and internal operations, Routledge (2016), pp. 112-113
  2. ^ "Afghan-Pakistani Trouble Brewing Again Near the Khyber Pass". The New York Times. 13 August 1975.
  3. ^ a b Kiessling, Hein (2016). Unity, Faith and Discipline: The Inter-Service Intelligence of Pakistan. Oxford University Press. The era of ISI action in Afghanistan now began. A first large scale operation in 1975 was encouragement of large scale rebellion in the Panjshir valley.
  4. ^ a b Houèrou, Fabienne La (2014). Humanitarian Crisis and International Relations 1959-2013. Bentham Science Publisher. p. 150. The president Khan revived adversarial stance not only toward Pakistan, but to the sponsor, USSR. First Daoud Khan set off proxy war in Pakistan, but in retaliation faced growing Islamic fundamentalists movement within Afghanistan
  5. ^ https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Chapter-1-3.pdf
  6. ^ "Dossiers of rebel field commanders | Wilson Center Digital Archive". digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
  7. ^ a b c H. Emadi. Dynamics of Political Development in Afghanistan: The British, Russian, and American Invasions. Springer. 18 October 2010. "These actions by Bhutto forced Daoud to soften his rhetoric and consider normalizing relations with Pakistan, as he came to realize that a friendly Pakistan was in his best interest...".
  8. ^ a b c Shaista Wahab, Barry Youngerman. A Brief History of Afghanistan. 2007. Infobase Publishing, 2007. p. 133
  9. ^ "Afghan-Pakistani Trouble Brewing Again Near the Khyber Pass (Published 1975)". The New York Times. 1975-08-13. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
  10. ^ Newton, Michael (2014). Famous Assassination in World History:An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 106. By 1976, while proxy guerilla war with Pakistan, Daoud faced rising Islamic fundamentalists movement led by exiled cleric aided openly by Pakistani prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
  11. ^ a b "Martyrs Week, Massoud's Death Anniversary Commemorated". TOLOnews. Retrieved 2024-03-17.
  12. ^ a b c Hein Kiessling, Faith, Unity, Discipline: The Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, Oxford University Press (2016), p. 34
  13. ^ a b c Roy Gutman. How We Missed the Story: Osama Bin Laden, the Taliban and the Hijacking of Afghanistan (1st ed., 2008 ed.). Endowment of the United States Institute of Peace, Washington DC. p. 34.
  14. ^ a b c d Shahram Akbarzadeh; Samina Yasmeen (2005). Islam And the West: Reflections from Australia. University of New South Wales Press. pp. 81–82.
  15. ^ Ansar, Massoud (9 September 2018). "Furious Kabul Residents Slam Govt Over Massoud Day Mayhem". TOLOnews.
  16. ^ a b Gall, Sandy (2021). Afghan Napoleon: The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud. London: Haus Publishing. pp. 20–21, 22. ISBN 978-1-913368-22-7.
  17. ^ Kakar, M. Hassan (1995). Afghanistan: The Soviet invasion and the Afghan response, 1979-1982. University of California Press. pp. 89–90. ISBN 0520085914.
  18. ^ The Wars of Afghanistan Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts, and the Failures of Great Powers (ebook). PublicAffairs. 2013. p. 40. ISBN 9781610394123.
  19. ^ Marcela Grad (2009). Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader. Webster University Press. p. 310.ISBN 9780982161500
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