The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

“In an attempt to halt anti-government activities by the Afghan Muslim clergy, theTaraki-Amin government began a cruel campaign of repressions against prominent Afghanclergymen in the winter of 1978 and 1979. The large majority of the Mojaddedi clan wasphysically eliminated (about seventy people). However, at a time when secondarymembers of that spiritual clan were being executed, the head of the order was givingsermons to Muslims in a mosque in Copenhagen. Was that a mistake on the part of theKhalqis, or had it been an intentional act, with the goal of destabilizing the situation inAfghanistan?“The head of the Hazara community, Sarvar Vaez, and his relatives, as well as otherShia authorities, were captured and killed. At the same time, Vaez’s son, Vaez-Zadeh, was inIran, in Mashhad, where he studied Islamic theology under the leadership of the Iranianayatollah Shariatmadari. He would later emerge as the main leader of the Herat uprising.“The government’s repressions against the Muslim clergy resulted in confrontationbetween the new authorities and religious circles within the country. The clergymen whoescaped Afghanistan, particularly those who lost their family members as a result of thesecrackdowns, began counter-revolutionary activities, in which they involved broad massesof refugees who had suffered at the hands of Khalqis. At the same time, the Muslimclergymen who remained in Afghanistan used their vast connections to conduct antigovernmentactivities on the territory of the DRA.“Sibghatullah Mojaddedi arrived in Peshawar from Copenhagen in January 1979. OnFebruary 7, 1979, he declared jihad against the new Afghan regime. Other major AfghanSunni and Shia spiritual leaders supported the appeal for jihad. All major counterrevolutionaryforces in the country joined the clergymen, as well as a great number of410