Mohammad Najibullah - Final Years and Death

Final Years and Death

During his 1992–96 refuge in the UN compound in Kabul, while waiting for the UN to negotiate his safe passage to India, he engaged himself in translating Peter Hopkirk's book The Great Game into his mother tongue Pashto. Few months before his final execution by Taliban, he quoted, "Afghans keep making the same mistake," reflecting upon his translation to a visitor.

When the Taliban were about to enter Kabul, Ahmad Shah Massoud twice offered Najibullah an opportunity to flee Kabul; although they were political enemies, Massoud had known Najibullah since childhood, as they had lived in the same neighborhood. Najibullah refused, believing the Taliban, Ghilzai Pashtuns like Najibullah, would spare his life and not harm him. General Tokhi, who was with Dr. Najibullah until the day before his torture and murder, wrote that when three people came to both Dr. Najibullah and General Tokhi and asked them to come with them to flee Kabul, they rejected the offer. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Najibullah was at the UN compound when the Taliban soldiers came for him on 27 September 1996. He was castrated before the Taliban dragged him to death behind a truck in the streets. His blood-soaked body was hung from a traffic light. His brother Shahpur Ahmadzai was given the same treatment. Najibullah's and his brother's body were hanged on public display to show the public that a new era had begun. At first Najibullah and his brother were denied an Islamic funeral because of their "crimes", but the bodies were later handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross who in turn sent their bodies to the Paktia province were both of them were given a proper funeral by their fellow Ahmadzai tribesmen.

There was widespread international condemnation, particularly from the Muslim world. The United Nations issued a statement which condemned the execution of Najibullah, and claimed that such a murder would further destabilise Afghanistan. The Taliban responded by issuing death sentences on Dostum, Massoud and Burhanuddin Rabbani. India, which had been supporting Najibullah, strongly condemned the public execution of Najibullah and began to support Massoud's United Front in an attempt to contain the rise of the Taliban.