The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen ... - Tribal Analysis Center

VIGNETTE 1
A TRIP TO THE "GOVERNOR'S HOUSE" GOES BAD
BY COMMANDER SARSHAR
The governor of Parwan Province had his residence in the city of
Charikar. It was located next to the Numan High School. There was
also a security post in an enclosed house next to the governor's residence
and the high school. This post was called the Wali house and
there were normally 30 soldiers in it. Everyone called the security post
"the Governor's House", although it was not. In January 1983, we
planned a raid on this security post (No map). I had about 200
Mujahideen armed with a 76mm mountain gun, five 82mm mortars,
two 82mm recoilless rifles, 20 RPG-7s, Goryunov heavy machine guns,
PK medium machine guns and Kalashnikov rifles. This was a severe
winter and we moved across the mountains at night in the bitter cold.
We came to the village of Ofian-e Sharif where we spent the day and
planned our raid. I constituted a heavy weapons support team serving
the 76mm gun, the mortars and the recoilless rifles. I constituted two
security groups—one of which would secure the area to the north
behind the heavy weapons support team and one to the south which
would secure the approaches to Numan High School. I constituted an
assault team to seize the outpost.
At night, we moved from Ofian-e Sharif onto the Ofian plain outside
another security post at Qal-e Maqbul, which is just north of the
target in Charikar. I launched the attack at night, but right as the
assault group was moving forward in the attack, the mortar and recoilless
rifle rounds landed in the middle of the assault group. I had 18
KIA and WIA. I aborted the attack and began evacuating the dead and
wounded. Coincidently, the enemy had planned a major cordon and
search operation which began the next morning. Early the next morning,
the enemy moved through the area and cordoned it off with hundreds
of tanks and APCs. They encircled hundreds of Mujahideen in
the Bagram, Kohistan and Charikar area. We were trapped in our
Commander Sarshar was a police officer in Parwan and worked clandestinely with the
Mujahideen: When his cover was about to be blown, he became a Mujahideen commander
in Ghorband. He commanded a mobile grOup in the Ghorband front near Charikar.
[Map sheet 2887].
1 There is no map for this vignette. This operation is describe in Chapter 10, Vignette 4,
"Defending Against a Cordon and Search Operation in Parwan" by Commander Haji Abdul
Qader.