External Actors in the Afghan Problem

In his very interesting account, Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf who was the head of the Afghan Bureau of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), reveals how he controlled the flow of thousands of tons of arms across Pakistan and into its neighbour, Afghanistan;—arms bought with CIA and Saudi Arabian funds from the US, Britain, China, Egypt and Turkey, among others. Quoted as one of the greatest military, political and financial secrets of recent times, this book reveals how the Brigadier organized and directed the training of the Mujahideen (the holy warriors) in secret camps within his own country, and covertly sent Pakistani Army teams inside Afghanistan to assist the guerrillas to ambush, assassin, raid and launch rocket attacks, a campaign that intended the Soviets to realize that they can never bring Afghanistan under their complete control.

A brief word on the Mujahideen is important. Local resistances erupted throughout Afghanistan, as soon as the country was swamped by the Soviets and as a reaction to the Communist government’s policies.

These groups were thoroughly local and parochial in their outlooks and formed local political armed groups, that later were transformed into political forces with bases in Pakistan and Iran. All these groups were loosely labelled as the Mujahideen, were co-ordinately directed to resist the Soviets all throughout the country. They were assisted to take up massive covert operations and for this purpose received aid from various sources, the most important being the US, who used Pakistan as the conduit to supply arms, ammunitions and other essential purposive assistance.