How Massoud Offered Him a Safe Departure from Kabul
Author: Engineer Habil, aide to Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim
On Sunday, 6 Mizan 1375, corresponding to 27 September 1996, between the afternoon and evening prayers, on the last day of mujahideen rule in Kabul, fierce fighting continued only along the defensive line on the Pul-e Charkhi road. The air throughout Kabul was filled with smoke and dust. The situation was relatively calm along the city’s other defensive lines, including Arghandi and the route towards Maidan Shahr, Gul Bagh and Rishkhor, the Khairabad heights in western Kabul, and Sang-e Nawishta on the route towards Char Asiab and Band-e Ghazi.
Fighting along the Pul-e Charkhi road continued with the same intensity and ferocity, with withdrawals alternating with resistance. Fahim Sahib and I were on a hill overlooking the former four-hundred-bed hospital, which had recently been named “Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan.”
The eventual outcome on the front was almost clear. At the time, the late Amir Sahib was at headquarters in Jabal-us-Siraj, maintaining constant radio contact with me and with the other radio networks serving units engaged in the fighting, requesting reports and clarifying the situation.
Amir Sahib said to me:
“Tell Fahim Khan: there is no longer any need for you to remain there. Pull back a little so that you can gather your thoughts and properly command and direct the troops.”
I passed Amir Sahib’s message to the marshal, who was then speaking with commanders Mullah Sabur and Mumin Shaba.
After finishing his conversation with those commanders, he called Amir Sahib over the radio:
“25, Tariq, can you hear me?”
He replied:
“Tariq 25, I’m listening. What is the situation?”
After Fahim Sahib described the situation and explained how far the fighting had reached, Amir Sahib continued:
“In that case, given the situation, you should no longer stay there. Come down and take up a position near the foot of the Khair Khana pass, so that you can attend to matters calmly from there.”
Fahim Sahib said:
“Yes, that is right. But I have stayed here until now to keep the situation under control to the very last moment and give the brothers holding the lines in other parts of Kabul a chance to leave their positions and get out safely. If, God forbid, the front advances rapidly in this direction, the men will have neither the time nor the opportunity to get out safely, and, God forbid, they will all be taken prisoner.”
Amir Sahib said:
“Very well, but be careful, and move to a safer place yourself.”
Amir Sahib’s aim was the same as Fahim Sahib’s. Fahim Sahib had remained there for the sake of the mujahideen holding the other defensive belts: if the situation changed and the enemy advanced along the road through the ninth district, they would all be cut off inside the city. Amir Sahib, in turn, was deeply concerned that Fahim Sahib himself might also become surrounded.
We remained on that height for another half hour. Amir Sahib came over the radio again. This time he was in such a hurry that he did not even name our radio network and called out directly:
“Habil! Habil! Khalid, can you hear me?”
I replied:
“I can hear you, Sahib!”
He asked:
“Where have you got to?”
I had to tell the truth:
“Amir Sahib, we are still on the same hill and have not moved yet.”
When Amir Sahib was a little annoyed, he would sometimes address his close friends as “Aghazadeh.”
He said to me:
“Tell Aghazadeh: I told you to pull back to a safer place.”
Fahim Sahib, who had heard Amir Sahib’s voice, said:
“Tell him: all right, we are moving.”
On Fahim Sahib’s behalf, I assured Amir Sahib that we would now come down.
A few minutes passed. The marshal told the man responsible for the guards and vehicles:
“Get ready. Let’s go.”
As we were preparing to leave, the marshal, despite the difficult situation, said to our utter astonishment:
“Let’s stop at the security headquarters first. I will not leave Kabul until I have performed my afternoon prayer there.”
We had already reached the streets of Wazir Akbar Khan when Amir Sahib called for the third time. I replied:
“I’m listening.”
He used his customary phrase:
“Hand the receiver to your number one.”
I was sitting in the car beside Fahim Sahib, and he took the radio. He responded:
“Khalid, Tariq, I’m listening!”
Amir Sahib asked:
“What have you done?”
The marshal replied:
“We have come down from the hill and are heading towards the Khair Khana pass.”
He did not mention his decision to stop at headquarters and perform the afternoon prayer.
Amir Sahib said:
“Very well.”
They said:
“Yes, Fahim Sahib, sir. We conveyed your message and greetings, and those of Amir Sahib, to Dr. Najib. He listened carefully and, at the end, delighted that you and Amir Sahib had remembered him and asked about his situation, said: “Convey my greetings to Engineer Massoud Sahib and Fahim Sahib, and express my appreciation and gratitude to them both. Tell them: once again, thank you very much for remembering me. Since I am staying at the UN office, inshallah, there is no cause for concern. I will remain here, and we shall see what happens next. And please assure Engineer Massoud Sahib and dear Fahim that, God willing, in a few days I will be able to do you a great service.”’
The marshal said to me:
“Put me in touch with Amir Sahib.”
I called him over the radio. Amir Sahib answered.
The marshal conveyed Dr. Najib’s reply:
“Following your instructions, I sent Dr. Misbah and Agha Sahib to Dr. Najib. They delivered your message. He was pleased that you and I had asked about him and said: ‘Thank you for remembering me in such circumstances. I will never forget your kindness. But for now, my decision is to remain here. Inshallah, since this is the UN office, I will be in no danger. And I am certain that within the next two or three days I will do you a great service!”
Amir Sahib said:
“Very well. Our message, our concern for him, and our readiness to arrange his safe departure have all been conveyed to him. The rest is for him to judge.”
After the radio contact with Amir Sahib ended, the marshal addressed the two brothers again:
“Go to the doctor once more and tell him again on my behalf: in the present situation, given the changes that lie ahead, there are no guarantees. No one can be certain how things will turn out or which direction events will take. Tell him: this time, Fahim himself has sent us to say to you—please come with us!”
They went back to him.
Friends, reading these lines, many of you probably know that only a single road separated us from the UN office.
After they left, Fahim Sahib stood to perform the afternoon prayer, which was already a little overdue.
During the prayer, the telephone with a four-digit number on the desk rang. I answered. It was the late Dr. Misbah, calling from the UN office.
He said:
“Dear Habil, can you hear me?”
I replied:
“Yes.”
He said:
“I have conveyed Fahim Sahib’s words to the doctor, but he repeated his earlier answer and does not want to leave with us. What should we do?”
I waited until the marshal, who was performing the final rak‘ah of his prayer, had finished. He then said to the late Misbah:
“Tell him once more that he need have no concerns about us or Amir Sahib, as Amir Sahib’s message already made clear. If he does not agree, come back yourself. But tell Agha Sahib, who is responsible for the security of the office, to remain at his post.”
“Convey my greetings to Engineer Massoud Sahib and Fahim Sahib, and express my appreciation and gratitude to them both. Tell them: once again, thank you very much for remembering me. Since I am staying at the UN office, inshallah, there is no cause for concern. I will remain here, and we shall see what happens next. And please assure Engineer Massoud Sahib and dear Fahim that, God willing, in a few days I will be able to do you a great service.”
The marshal said to me:
“Put me in touch with Amir Sahib.”
I called him over the radio. Amir Sahib answered.
The marshal conveyed Dr. Najib’s reply:
“Following your instructions, I sent Dr. Misbah and Agha Sahib to Dr. Najib. They delivered your message. He was pleased that you and I had asked about him and said: ‘Thank you for remembering me in such circumstances. I will never forget your kindness. But for now, my decision is to remain here. Inshallah, since this is the UN office, I will be in no danger. And I am certain that within the next two or three days I will do you a great service!”
Amir Sahib said:
“Very well. Our message, our concern for him, and our readiness to arrange his safe departure have all been conveyed to him. The rest is for him to judge.”
After the radio contact with Amir Sahib ended, the marshal addressed the two brothers again:
“Go to the doctor once more and tell him again on my behalf: in the present situation, given the changes that lie ahead, there are no guarantees. No one can be certain how things will turn out or which direction events will take. Tell him: this time, Fahim himself has sent us to say to you—please come with us!”
They went back to him.
Friends, reading these lines, many of you probably know that only a single road separated us from the UN office.
After they left, Fahim Sahib stood to perform the afternoon prayer, which was already a little overdue.
During the prayer, the telephone with a four-digit number on the desk rang. I answered. It was the late Dr. Misbah, calling from the UN office.
He said:
“Dear Habil, can you hear me?”
I replied:
“Yes.”
He said:
“I have conveyed Fahim Sahib’s words to the doctor, but he repeated his earlier answer and does not want to leave with us. What should we do?”
I waited until the marshal, who was performing the final rak‘ah of his prayer, had finished. He then said to the late Misbah:
“Tell him once more that he need have no concerns about us or Amir Sahib, as Amir Sahib’s message already made clear. If he does not agree, come back yourself. But tell Agha Sahib, who is responsible for the security of the office, to remain at his post.”
The marshal had finished his prayer and, in those deeply tense and perilous moments, was waiting for Dr. Najib’s final response. Barely five or ten minutes had passed when the late Dr. Misbah returned.
He said:
“I spoke to Dr. Najib for the third time.
He said:
“Give my greetings to Fahim Sahib and tell him: Najib says that, for as long as I live, I will remain grateful for your kindness. Thank you very much. Please do not worry about me. I wish you success and good health. But I have one request: if you would be so kind, please allow these two guards from among the Panjshiri men, who have been here with me all this time, to stay with me. Inshallah, I will look after them.”
Fahim Sahib said:
“Tell Agha Sahib on my behalf to instruct those two guards not to leave Dr. Najib under any circumstances, for as long as he wishes them to remain.”
After receiving Dr. Najibullah’s final response, we hurriedly left the security headquarters. By then, the fighting had reached the Macrorayan intersection—the intersection named after the late Abdul Haq. Following Amir Sahib’s instructions, we reached the foot of the Khair Khana pass, where the 16th Division was based and where the 17th police district headquarters was later located.
Sadly, we are all aware of what subsequently happened to Dr. Najib.
What matters is that, despite all his commitments, the tense situation and the intensity of the fighting, Amir Sahib followed the matter through to the end. Through repeated contacts and by sending people to him several times, he gave Dr. Najibullah the opportunity and the means to leave Kabul. In doing so, he made his offer and warning fully clear, leaving no room for doubt.
This is the most precise account of how Amir Sahib asked Dr. Najibullah to leave the city of Kabul.
