The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

young people at the square, told them about the revolution, distributed badges withTaraki’s portrait, and invited them to enter the local party organization. Local youth wereinterested in what the visitors had to say. They were very surprised to see girls who hadarrived from Kabul not wearing burqas. Some of the youth pinned the badges to theirshirts. However, right after the visitors departed, the ‘apostates’ were publicallyexecuted—Islamic fanatics tore seven of the youngsters to shreds. Amin orderedeverybody who had participated in the murder to be brought to Kabul. Soldiers arrestedroughly one hundred people without paying particular attention to who was directlyinvolved in the murder and who merely happened to be in the vicinity.Late in the evening, one of the leaders of the Tsarandoi came to Kliushnikov. “Theyare going to try one hundred people at the same time in the Ministry of the Interior. Itwould be good if you could come.” When the colonel entered the vestibule of the ministry,he saw dozens of poorly dressed people crouching on the floor. The head of Tsarandoi,Major Tarun, was sitting above them in an armchair. Tarun’s deputy approachedKliushnikov, claiming that all those present were bandits and deserved death. The colonelrecommended that each one be interrogated separately and that sentencing ought not to berushed. Despite Kliushnikov’s advice, the interrogations began right in the vestibule. Theadviser returned to his office. After some time, he heard the sound of bus engines. Lookingout the window, he watched as the remaining captives were shoved into the buses.At sunrise, that very same deputy head of Tsarandoi came with two of his staffmembers to see the adviser. They seemed confused and were very pale. They poured vodkaand said that every one of their captives had been shot. After the collective interrogation,256