The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

kilometers outside of the city. Soon he learned that the prominent Parchamis Keshtmand and Raffiwere imprisoned in the adjacent cell. According to the interrogators’ theory, Qadir was themilitary leader of the plot, and the others were political leaders.A member of the Politburo, Minister Sultan Keshtmand, was arrested on the day of hisdeparture for Venezuela to attend the Forum for Developing Countries as the head of the officialgovernment delegation. He received a call from Amin’s secretary claiming that Comrade Tarakineeded to see him urgently. Harboring no suspicions, Keshtmand appeared in the palace, where hewas promptly arrested. Asking why he was being arrested, his captors replied that he would findout later.With a bag on his head, Keshtmand was driven through the city before being thrown intosome basement. At midnight, his party colleagues arrived—Sarwari, Tarun, Head ofCounterintelligence Aziz Akbari, and Amin’s nephew Assadullah. Keshtmand made no attempt todeny that in Babrak Karmal’s absence he was a leader of Parcham, and that the leadership of thefaction had been meeting secretly and discussing the current situation. The meetings had to besecret because at the time, any open meetings of that kind would be impossible. The participantswould all have been arrested. But according to Keshtmand the Parchamis were not planning anycoup d’etat, let alone carrying out any hostile actions against the regime. On the contrary,Keshtmand claimed, he had appealed to his colleagues to remain patient and rational and to avoidchallenging the authorities. However, those who interrogated him demanded a different sort ofstory.Since the very first interrogation, the minister was tortured by electricity. Sarwari couldnot deny himself the pleasure of watching a human being tortured by electricity emitted from thefield telephone. Keshtmand was in convulsions from pain. During the second night, he pleaded for199