The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

were expelled from local authorities. Amin, when addressing the masses, would dedicatesignificant amounts of time to talking about violations of law that were happening with theblessing of the former leaders. He condemned the repressions and terror against innocentcivilians. He went so far as to rename Afghanistan’s internal security service as KAM,translated as the Organization of Workers’ Counterintelligence. However, the name changedid not help prevent the murders of innocent civilians. The acts of repression intensified.Aziz Akbari’s tenure as the head of security services did not last long. The newAfghan leader did not believe that Akbari was completely loyal, and soon demoted him tohis former position as the head of counterintelligence. Asadullah Amin, Amin’s nephew,was appointed KAM chief. This young man, who a year and a half earlier was working as amedical technician, now occupied several key posts. In addition to his new post as KAMchief, Asadullah Amin became the first secretary of the Kabul City Committee of the PDPA,was chairman of the Society of Afghan-Soviet Friendship, a Central Committee member, amember of the Revolutionary Council, and remained deputy minister of foreign affairs. Hewas very good at fulfilling all of Hafizullah Amin’s wishes, and eager to please his uncle outof gratitude for his rapid career growth.During those days, the KGB office sent a number of cables to the Center regardingthe intensifying repression. In one of the cables, Osadchiy informed the Center that,according to a trusted source, Amin had ordered that preparations be made to eliminatethree hundred political prisoners, among whom were prominent PDPA leaders such asKeshtmand, Qadir, and Raffi. Amin’s plan was to blame AGSA for the repression and use themedia to inform the public that the prisoners had been executed under Taraki. Aminthereby planned to kill two birds with one stone: to deliver a final blow to the opposition602