The Man Who Boiled Tea Using Books from Kabul University
Author: Ghulam Mohammad Tawana, “Hindukush” website
Shafiei Dewana (“Crazy Shafiei”) was the first person who, in the modern history of Kabul and Afghanistan, laid the foundations of terror, murder, seizure of property, and sexual violence, to such an extent that the people of Kabul would lose their senses upon hearing his stories.
Shafiei Dewana was the first to introduce such practices as the “dance of the dead,” cutting off the breasts of Pashtun and Tajik women, as well as beating the breasts of underage girls with slippers until they became swollen and enlarged, to satisfy his savage sexual desires in this way.
Shafiei Dewana did not limit himself to driving nails into the heads of living people, cutting off ears and noses, but committed every kind of crime, examples of which had never before been seen or heard of in the history of Afghanistan.
The American writer Christina Lamb writes: “Shafiei Dewana’s fighters had their base at Kabul University and boiled tea using books from the library of Kabul University, because there was no longer a single door or window left in the university.”
Ali-Khan Zahidi writes in his book The Defeat of the Deprived Peoples of Afghanistan: “When the fighting stopped, Shafiei Dewana’s thugs and fighters would enter houses and war-damaged buildings and plunder everything that fell into their hands.”
Shafiei Dewana had an organized group of thieves who, whenever they took an interest in a particular place, would enter it and begin looting. Shafiei Dewana’s thugs would even take dozens of beautiful girls from people’s homes, keep them with them for months, and subject them to sexual violence; many of them became pregnant and gave birth to children.
When Shafiei Dewana’s fighters fled the area of Kabul University, according to the account of one of the commanders of the Northern Alliance at the time, a girl approached us at night; several other young men and I were surprised, but we gathered the courage to go toward her.
The girl was naked and said to us: “I was a captive of Shafiei Dewana’s fighters, and when they fled, they left us behind. In Shafiei Dewana’s underground prison, there are hundreds of girls like me being held captive, most of whom are in very poor condition and unable to move. Shafiei Dewana’s men attacked our homes, killed our men, looted our homes, and forcibly took us away with them. The insane thugs were so cruel that they would place women’s breasts in the gaps of doors and windows and take pleasure in the women’s screams and cries. They would burn women’s genitals with cigarettes, cut off women’s breasts, and force other prisoners to eat those severed breasts.”
Ali-Khan says that the history of Shafiei Dewana’s atrocities is very long. He adds: “In the cabinets of Kabul University lay the dried bodies of dozens of people. If the insane thugs caught someone from another place in their area, they would take everything he had and then ask: ‘Where are you going?’ He would answer: ‘To such-and-such a place.’ They would ask: ‘How much is the fare to get there?’ He would answer: ‘Ten or twenty Afghanis.’ The thugs would say: ‘Now give us ten or twenty Afghanis, and we will let you go.’ Since they had already taken all his possessions and he had nothing left, he would remain silent. Then they would laugh and either cut off his ear, or his nose, or drive a nail into his head.”
Dewana had a private prison in Dasht-e Barchi, where he held hundreds of people captive. Every day, he killed two of these prisoners and prepared shorba (a type of soup — “Sangar”) from the flesh of the murdered prisoners, feeding this soup to the other prisoners.
Shafiei Dewana was killed on August 22, 1996 (31 Asad 1375), in the center of Bamyan, at the home of Karim Khalili.
Source: Hindukush website, February 14, 2024, Ghulam Mohammad Tawana.
Historical Background on Shafiei Dewana:
Shafiei Dewana (a prominent commander associated with Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islami — the Islamic Unity Party — under the leadership of Abdul Ali Mazari) was one of the most controversial and well-known commanders of the civil war of the 1370s (1992–1996) in Kabul.
Historical Context: Following the fall of Najibullah’s government in 1992, Kabul was divided among various mujahideen factions (Jamiat-e Islami, Hezb-e Islami, Hizb-e Wahdat, and the National Movement). Western Kabul and Kabul University were under the control of Hizb-e Wahdat, and the front lines of the fighting also ran through the area.
Conflicting Accounts: In historical narratives about Afghanistan, Shafiei Dewana is portrayed as an ambiguous figure. His supporters regarded him as a defender of the Hazara people against rival factions, while independent historical reports, human-rights organizations, and eyewitness accounts accuse him of committing serious war crimes, torture, mass killings of civilians, and looting.
Circumstances of His Death: After the Taliban captured Kabul and the Hizb-e Wahdat headquarters fell, he went to Bamyan. There, due to his defiance, refusal to obey the orders of the new leadership of Hizb-e Wahdat (Karim Khalili), and disciplinary violations, he was killed during an internal confrontation at Karim Khalili’s home.
