#JIHAD:
After the assassination of Khyber, the Daoud regime arrested a number of high-profile #communists-rightly fearing a coup attempt.The arrests backfired.Communist plotters overthrew the regime on 27 April 1978.Daoud & several of his relatives were killed.1/9
@FazelQazizai

The communist coup happened on a Thursday. At 10pm that same night, senior Hizb-e Islami members met in #Peshawar to discuss their response. After some debate, they agreed it was their Islamic obligation to wage armed #jihad. 2/9

On 5 May 1978, Hizb launched its first #operation against the new regime, sending #Jalaluddin_Haqqani into Ziruk, #Paktika. Haqqani rallied men at a local mosque, urging them to attack government forces in the area. They heeded his call, 3/9

seizing Afghan #territory in the name of Hizb for the first time in the party’s history.The next defining moment for Hizb came in Kunar a few weeks later, on 22 May. A local insurgent commander, Kashmir Khan,captured d mujahideen’s first #Kalashnikov from a communist sldier. 4/9

At around this time, Hizb held another leadership #election. More than 1,200 people voted and #Hekmatyar won by a clear majority, replacing Mohammed Amin Weqad. Hizb’s early victories came at a heavy cost for the party and the country. 5/9

#Hekmatyar’s father and two of his brothers were murdered by the communist regime. Professor Niazi and Saifuddin Nasratyar were killed during an #uprising in Pul-e Charkhi jail. Across Afghanistan, innocent elders and clerics met the same fate. 6/9

The communists’ brutality fuelled Hizb’s radicalism.
On 5 July 1979, a soldier in the army, General Muzaferuddin, turned on the regime in #Zabul. After killing a number of communist #officers, he and his men #defected to Hekmatyar’s party. 7/9

Soon afterwards, Muzaferuddin helped Hizb stage an even bigger #mutiny in Kunar. As it waged war inside Afghanistan, Hizb was busy building the framework of a radical shadow state in the #Pakistan borderlands. 8/9

In time, it published its own newspaper and magazines, ran schools, opened a university and established a new township, #Nasrat_Mina - named in honour of the martyred Saifuddin #Nasratyar. 9/9