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

VIGNETTE 2
CHAMTALA RAID
by Tsaranwal (Attorney) Sher Habib
In June 1982, Commander Sheragai led a group of ten of my
Mujahideen on a successful raid on a DRA outpost on the Chamtala
plain near Highway 2, just north of Kabul. Commander Sheragai
was a Kochi 2 and a kinsman of a Kochi clan which had its summer
quarters in Paghman and in the areas around Kabul. Some of the
families of the clan pitched their tents in Chamtala plain. There
they tended their flocks of sheep and goats in the grazing lands just
north of Kabul. Their grazing lands were close to a DRA security
outpost. The DRA outpost hindered Mujahideen movement through
the area (Map 2-2 - Chamtala).
We decided to raid the DRA outpost. I selected Commander
Sheragai to lead the raid since he could easily gain the full cooperation
of his Kochi clansmen in the area. His group was armed with small
arms. They left our base at Qala-e Hakim in Paghman and walked to
the Chamtala plain. There, Kochi families took the raiding party into
their tents and cared for them. The raiding party stayed with the
nomads for several days while they studied and evaluated the outpost
and prepared for the raid. Commander Sheragai wanted to find an
unmined approach to the outpost, so he asked his kinsmen to move
their flocks to various spots around the outpost so he could probe the
approaches. This went on for three days while Commander Sheragai
picked the most secure approach to the outpost where the terrain
allowed to Mujahideen to sneak up on the outpost unobserved. They
cleared this approach of mines.
On the morning of the raid, the Mujahideen raiders moved to the
target within a herd of sheep. Some Mujahideen posed as shepherds,
while others crawled along in the middle of the grazing sheep. The
herd moved right up to the DRA outpost, but the Mujahideen presence
was never detected or suspected by the DRA guards. The raiding
group spent the whole day in the middle of the sheep herd and found
hiding places. At sunset, the shepherds drove the flock back toward
Tsaranwal (Attorney) Sher Habib commanded the Ibrahimkhel Front north of the city of
Paghman. His primary AOR extended from Paghman east and northeast to Kabul (some
20 kilometers). [Map sheet 2886, vic grid 2369].
2 Kochi are nomadic peoples.