a department within the Prime Minister’s Office, it was headed
until 21 November 1985 by Dr Najibullah. He was succeeded by
his deputy Ghulam Faruq Yaqubi, who headed the Secret Police
until the communist regime collapsed in 1992. On 11 January
1986, KhAD was reconstituted as the Ministry of State Security
(Wizarat-e Amaniat-e Dawlatior WAD). In contrast to bodies such
as the Army and the Interior Ministry, KhAD became a Parcham
faction stronghold.
The model for KhAD was explicitly the Soviet KGB, which
played a significant role in exercising domestic political control.
According to Rubin, Najibullah reported directly to the KGB
(Rubin, 1995a: 133), and like the KGB, KhAD was divided into a
number of departments, dealing inter aliawith counter-intelligence,
surveillance of foreigners, surveillance of party and government
members, surveillance of intellectuals, counter-insurgency, and
operations across the border with Pakistan. All major towns under
regime control had their own KhAD offices, and it was in these
outposts that some of KhAD’s worst atrocities were committed.
KhAD was widely believed responsible for a campaign of bomb-
ings in the Pakistani city of Peshawar in 1985–86, and was also
involved in kidnappings such as that of the Australian aid worker
Robert Williamson, who was seized with his wife near Quetta on 18
May1985 (Maley, 1986: 20), and released only on 27 December
1985 after months of imprisonment in Kabul. KhAD was unques-
tionably the most effective instrumentality of the Karmal regime.
This was partly because it was factionally homogeneous, and partly
because it enjoyed the patronage of a well-developed and efficient
Soviet ‘parent’. However, it also had a competent leader, who was
to mirror his Soviet counterpart, Andropov, by moving from his
police position to a position as Party Secretary, and ultimately by
obtaining the supreme leadership.
Najibullah as head of KhAD
Najibullah was born in 1947 in Kabul, but by descent was an
Ahmadzai Pushtun from a family in the Gardez area. He was from
98 The Afghanistan Wars