a house divided, 1933–73People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (pdpa) convened its first meeting
in secret. Khalq, as the pdpa was generally know, was a Marxist–Leninist
Republican organization whose leaders had formerly belonged to the Wish
Zalmiyan network, while the pdpa’s General Secretary, Nur Muhammad
Taraki, had been an employee and protégé of Zabuli. 43 Taraki later became
a junior officer in the Afghan embassy in Washington and on his return to
Kabul was employed as a translator for the u.s. Embassy. Taraki’s deputy,
Babrak Karmal, a political science graduate who had attended Kabul’s
Military College, had already spent time in prison for political agitation
and had developed an alliance of convenience with Da’ud. Other leading
lights of the pdpa included Hafiz Allah ’Amin, a Kharoti Ghilzai from
Paghman and a teacher with a Master’s Degree from Columbia University,
and Muhammad Najib Allah, an Ahmadzai Ghilzai from Gardez who was
a medical doctor. The most influential woman in the pdpa was Anahita
Ratebzad, a farsiwan from Guldarra in the Koh Daman who had trained
as a nurse in Chicago. Two years after the founding of the pdpa, Ratebzad
set up a militant women’s movement, the Sazman-i Demokratik-i Zanan-i
Afghanistan.
Like all political parties that emerged in the 1960s, the pdpa was
plagued by infighting over leadership issues and disagreements over ideol-
ogy and policy. Eventually in 1967 Babrak Karmal broke away and set up
his own Marxist–Leninist faction, Parcham (Flag, or Banner), which had
a particular appeal to university students and ethnic minorities. Parcham’s
leadership included Hazaras, Uzbeks and Panjshiris, while Khalq was a
mainly Ghilzai Pushtun party with a following among army and air force
officers, intellectuals and urban Pushtuns in northern Afghanistan.
The Sazman-i Demokratik-i Nauwin-i Afghanistan (New Democratic
Party of Afghanistan), commonly known as Sho‘la-yi Jawed (Eternal
Flame) after the title of its publication, on the other hand was a Maoist
party whose membership was, and still is, a closely guarded secret. Its
founder members were the three Mahmudi brothers: ‘Abd al-Rahim, a
medical doctor; ‘Abd al-Hadi; and ‘Abd al-Rahman, another doctor who
also edited the party’s broadsheet, Neda-yi Khalq. ‘Abd al-Rahman had
already spent several years in prison following a satirical attack on relic
cults, had served in the Liberal Parliament and was formerly a prominent
member of Wish Zalmiyan. The Mahmudis were Mohmands and had a
following among Pushtuns from Balkh as well as medical and engineering
students. The youth wing of Sho‘la-yi Jawed, known as Sazman-i Jawanan-i
Mutarraqi, the Progressive Youth Organization, was noted for its militancy
and between 1963 and 1973 its members clashed violently with Islamists,