a house divided, 1933–73town centres of Shibarghan and Mazar-i Sharif and extend the Shibarghan
gas pipeline to Mazar-i Sharif. In 1996 Dostam set up Balkh Airlines, run
by British pilots with a superannuated bac 1-11; the British stewardesses
with their short dresses were a sensation. In Mazar-i Sharif and Shibarghan,
Sibghat Allah Mujadidi’s Islamization programme was ignored and beer
and wine, imported from Uzbekistan, was openly on sale. Justice, though,
was arbitrary and the pahlawans had a fearful reputation for torture,
imprisonment and summary execution, as well as abducting young girls
and boys. Politically there were tensions within the Junbesh alliance
between Tajik and Turkman affiliates of Jami‘at-i Islami, Dostam’s Uzbeks
and his Parchami and Khalqi allies. Pushtuns loyal to Hikmatyar’s Hizb-i
Islami also clashed with Jami‘at and Dostam’s militias in Balkh, Sholgara,
Maimana, Qunduz and Baghlan.
After serving his two months as interim leader, Sibghat Allah Mujadidi
tried to remain in office but was prevented from doing so by Mas‘ud’s
Panjshiris, who physically barred him from entering the President’s office.
President Rabbani then broke the Peshawar Accord by extending his presi-
dency beyond the agreed four months. Hikmatyar, who still refused to
come to Kabul despite being designated prime minister, responded by
launching a devastating rocket attack on the capital, which led to the deaths
o f some 2,000 civilians and caused widespread destruction. The govern-
ment retaliated by bombing Hizb-i Islami positions in Chahar Asiyab and
the Logar.
At the end of December 1992 Rabbani convened a shura, loaded with
Jami‘at supporters, which voted to extend his reign as head of state. Dostam,
Hizb-i Wahdat and the Pushtun Islamist parties were not invited to this
assembly, while others boycotted it or walked out in protest. The shura
precipitated another round of fighting in the capital. Dostam and Jami‘at
fought each other in eastern Kabul, while in the west of the city Hizb-i
Wahdat and Mas‘ud’s Panjshiris clashed. These battles were no-holds-
barred affairs with all factions firing rockets, mortars, artillery rounds and
tank shells indiscriminately into residential areas. Thousands of civilians
died and swaths of southern Kabul were laid waste. Hundreds of thou-
sands of Kabulis fled the city: some headed north to the relative safety of
Mazar-i Sharif, others ended up in a vast, waterless and scorpion-infested
camp outside Jalalabad. Hazaras, meanwhile, made their way to Bamiyan,
where they lived on the margins of the town in caves.
Following the failure of the Peshawar Accord, un, Saudi Arabian and
Pakistani officials tried to reconcile the warring factions, and in March
1993 the main mujahidin parties signed a second power-sharing agreement