Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War - Bennett Park Raiders

VIGNETTE 10
WEAPONS RAID IN CHARIKAR
by Commander Sarshar
Charikar, the capital of Parwan Province, has a compact city core,
approximately one kilometer by one kilometer, and a large suburb.
The northern section of Charikar is called the "new jail" area. The
headquarters of the DRA militia forces (self-defense units) was in the
"new jail" area. Malek Shah was our contact inside that headquarters.
In October 1983, he promised to get us inside the militia compound
when the commander of the compound was asleep. I brought 65
Mujahideen from my base camp for this mission. We were armed with
two Goryunov heavy machine guns, three PK medium machine guns,
four RPG-7s, and Kalashnikov and Enfield rifles. I divided my force
into three security groups and an assault group. One security group
deployed near the road northeast of the headquarters, while the other
deployed to the northwest of the headquarters to cover the other flank.
These two security groups protected the assault group. The third security
group secured our withdrawal route north to Ofian-e Sharif.
We approached the target in the night at 0200 hours. At 0300
hours, we got a flashlight signal from the headquarters. I climbed the
wall and the eight other Mujahideen in the assault group followed me.
We were all inside the compound and Malek Shah was just starting to
point out the three rooms of the compound building when one of the
sleeping militia got up. He saw us and began shouting. We had no
time, so we burst into the three rooms firing as we went. I led the
group into their commander's room. We killed 20 and I lost one KIA
and one WIA. We captured 16 Kalashnikovs and I got their commander's
Makarov pistol. Since all the firing was inside the rooms, much
of the noise was muffled and the other security outposts did not react.
Apparently the other security posts did not know that we had taken
this post. We left the post before dawn. We went back to Ofian-e
Sharif and the following night returned to our base camp in Ghorband.
COMMENTARY: The side streets of Charikar are narrow and crooked.
Security of the flanks and withdrawal route were always a prime
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.
There is no map with this vignette. Charikar is found on Map sheet 2887.