Years Before Taliban Takeover, Afghan Diplomat Saw It Coming
Sameer Arshad Khatlani Follow on Facebook A fghan diplomat Masood Khalili had just enrolled for PhD after finishing his master’s degree from Delhi University when communists seized power in Kabul in April 1978. His father, the iconic poet and academic Khalilullah, called him from Baghdad, where he was the Afghan ambassador, to break the news. He warned Khalili that the communists had come and Russians will follow. 'Go get your PhD from the mountains of Afghanistan,' Khalilullah told his 28-year-old son. Khalili immediately left Delhi to join Afghan rebels as a political officer in Peshawar, before entering Afghanistan. ALSO READ: West's post-1979 Afghan Misadventure Continues To Cast Long Shadow Khalilullah’s fears came true the following year when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. Khalili responded by crisscrossing the country, mostly on his donkey, for the next nine years to mobilise Afghans against the occupiers. In between dodging bullets, the red army,