ing that only through an election in Afghanistan could it become
representative.
Several other attacks should be mentioned at this point. On 7
August 1989, the renowned 76-year-old Kandahar commander Haji
Abdul Latif was poisoned, reportedly by agents of the Kabul
regime (AFGHANews, 1 September 1989). In March 1990, Mulla
Nasim Akhundzada, the Deputy Defence Minister in the Interim
Government, was assassinated in Peshawar. Given Akhundzada’s
prominence in the opium trade, Hekmatyar’sHezbmay again have
been involved (Rubin, 1995a: 263). On 30 August 1991, Mawlawi
Jamilurrahman, a former Hezbcommander who in 1985 had estab-
lished a puritanical ‘mini-state’ in Kunar but fled to Pakistan in the
face of a Hezbattack, was assassinated in Pakistan by an Egyptian,
Abdullah Rumi, who was then killed by bodyguards. (Kunar was
perhaps the most disordered province in the entire country, and
was the scene of a massive explosion in the provincial capital,
Asadabad, on 20 April 1991, blamed on a SCUD missile attack.)
And on 4 November 1991, the former king, Zahir Shah, was
stabbed in Rome by a ‘journalist’ born in Angola and carrying a
Portuguese passport.
Resistance consolidation
Not all was bleak as far as the resistance was concerned. On the
ground, there were some military achievements, such as the cap-
ture of Khost in March 1991, which saw a resistance force under
Jalaluddin Haqqani capture not only the town, but a number of
senior regime generals, including Deputy Defence Minister
Muhammad Zahir Solamal. However, the resistance proved unable
to build on this gain: the ISI tried to claim it as a victory for
Hekmatyar, and the political rewards of the conquest were entirely
dissipated.
This reflected a new line of tension: between the parties and their
backers in Pakistan, and field commanders in Afghanistan. From
7–9 May 1990, a first meeting of a ‘National Commanders Shura’
was held, followed by another from 22–25 June, and a major
The Interregnum of Najibullah, 1989–1992 177