Mohammad Najibullah

Mohammad Najibullah

Mohammad Najibullah Ahmadzai (6 August 1947 – 27 September 1996), better known mononymously as Najibullah or Najib, was President of Afghanistan from 1987 until 1992 when the Mujahideen took over Kabul. He had previously held different careers under the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and was a graduate of Kabul University. Following the Saur Revolution Najibullah was a low profile bureaucrat, who was sent into exile during Hafizullah Amin's rise to power as Ambassador to Iran. He returned to Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion which toppled Amin's rule, and placed Karmal as head of state, party and government. During Karmal's rule, Najibullah became head of the KHAD, the Afghan equivalent to the Soviet KGB. He was a member of the Parcham faction led by Babrak Karmal.

During Najibullah's tenure as KHAD head, it became one of the most efficient governmental organs. Because of this he gained the attention of several leading Soviet officials, such as Yuri Andropov, Dmitriy Ustinov and Boris Ponomarev. In 1981, Najibullah was appointed to the PDPA Politburo. In 1985 Najibullah stepped down as state security minister to focus on PDPA politics; he had been appointed to the PDPA Secretariat. Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, was able to get Karmal to step down as PDPA General Secretary in 1986, and replace him with Najibullah. For a number of months Najibullah was locked in a power struggle against Karmal, who still retained his post of Chairman of the Revolutionary Council. Najibullah accused Karmal of trying to wreck his policy of National Reconciliation.

During his tenure as leader of Afghanistan, the Soviets began their withdrawal, and from 1989 until 1992, his government tried to solve the ongoing civil war without Soviet troops on the ground. While direct Soviet assistance ended with the withdraw, the Soviet Union still supported Najibullah with economic and military aid, while the United States continued its support for the mujahideen. Throughout his tenure, he tried to build support for his government. Najibullah even tried to portray his government as Islamic, and in the 1990 constitution the country officially became an Islamic state and all references of communism were removed. This change, coupled with others, did not win Najibullah any significant support. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Najibullah was left without foreign aid. This, coupled with the internal collapse of his government, led to his ousting from power in April 1992. Najibullah lived in the United Nations headquarters in Kabul until 1996, when the Taliban took Kabul. In 1996 Najibullah is said to have been castrated by the Taliban, and was dragged behind a truck in the streets of Kabul, before he was publicly hanged.