1975 Panjshir Valley uprising | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Afghanistan |
Jamiat-e Islami Supported by: Pakistan[1][2][3][4] Pahlavi Iran[1][5] | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Mohammad Daoud Khan Abdul Karim Mustaghni Faiz Mohammed Ghulam Haidar Rasuli Mohammad Aslam Watanjar | |||||||
Units involved | |||||||
| Afghan guerrilla troops | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | 5,000+ | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown |
The 1975 Panjshir Valley uprising was an Islamist uprising led by Jamiat-e Islami against the government of Daoud Khan, and was the first ever ISI operation that took place in Afghanistan.[9][3] It was in "retaliation to Republic of Afghanistan’s proxy war and support to the militants against Pakistan".[4][10]
The Republic of Afghanistan support to anti-Pakistani militants had forced then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Naseerullah Khan Babar, then-Inspector General of the Frontier Corps in NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), to adopt a more aggressive approach towards Afghanistan. As a result, ISI, under the command of Major General Ghulam Jilani Khan set up a 5,000-strong Afghan guerrilla troop, which would include influential future leaders like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmad Shah Massoud,[11] to target the Afghan government, the first large operation, in 1975, being the sponsoring of an armed rebellion in the Panjshir valley.[12] The 1975 rebellion, though unsuccessful, shook Daoud Khan and made him realize that a friendly Pakistan was in his best interests.[12][7] He started improving relations with Pakistan and made state visits there in 1976 and 1978. During the 1978 visit, he agreed to stop supporting anti-Pakistan militants and to expel any remaining militants in Afghanistan to the dismay of the Khalqists who would overthrow Daoud that same year in the Saur Revolution.[8]
The era of ISI action in Afghanistan now began. A first large scale operation in 1975 was encouragement of large scale rebellion in the Panjshir valley.
The president Khan revived adversarial stance not only toward Pakistan, but to the sponsor, USSR. First Daoud Khan set off proxy war in Pakistan, but in retaliation faced growing Islamic fundamentalists movement within Afghanistan
By 1976, while proxy guerilla war with Pakistan, Daoud faced rising Islamic fundamentalists movement led by exiled cleric aided openly by Pakistani prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.