The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

organization. Lieutenant General Mir Ahmadshah gathered around himself generals andofficers who were displeased with Daoud’s reforms. Ahmadshah made the serious mistakeof inviting Senior Lieutenant Watanjar of the Fourth Armored Brigade to one of thesesecret meetings. Unfortunately, Watanjar turned out to be a clandestine member of thePDPA. He informed Daoud’s people about the plans of the plotters, and all wereimmediately arrested and executed.But balancing between contending forces and creating his smart system of checksand balances, Daoud did not hesitate to occasionally strike at the left-wingers. Once, whenhe sensed that he had almost become a hostage of communists, he removed everybodyfrom the government whom he believed to be PDPA members and their sympathizers.Colonel Qadir was swept up by that wave and was removed from his position. He stayed athome for a long time, waiting for another appointment, and finally ended up as the head ofa slaughterhouse.It was only a year earlier that Qadir had been permitted to return to the armedforces. In his next incarnation he was appointed as air force and air defense chief of staff.There were rumors circulating that an enormous bribe had been paid for that position.Other rumors said the appointment was the result of interference by Soviet comrades, whosomehow convinced Daoud to remember the hero of the “anti-monarchical revolution.”Whatever the reason, it turned out that the president was digging his own grave.By strange coincidence, Qadir was officially accepted into the PDPA at the sametime. One evening somebody knocked on the door of his modest home. He opened it, andthere by the entrance was the general secretary of the Central Committee of the PDPA,Taraki, along with his favorite comrade, Amin, and Lieutenant Gulabzoi, a technician from41