The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

his tormentors to kill him.“Everything happens in due time,” laughed Sarwari. “First you will tell us how youprepared a plot against the party. You hate us, don’t you?”“I hate you now,” admitted Keshtmand. “I hate you because you call yourself communistswhen in reality you are really fascists.”“Tell us about your personal involvement in the military plot.”“What personal participation? I am a civilian. Who would believe my involvement in anyplot?”For ten days straight, Keshtmand was brutally beaten and tortured by an electric current.One of the guards whispered to him that his wife Karima was being tortured in the adjacent room.That made Keshtmand willing to sign any admission, which he did. The protocol that he signedclaimed that he was planning to lead his allies into the streets and to organize demonstrationsagainst the regime * .The country was flooded by a wave of arrests. Amin took advantage of the idea of thepossible plot, whether it was only an idea or a real plan. It presented an excellent reason to finishoff the internal opposition. In late summer and early fall, more than three thousand Parchamis andpeople who were suspected of being Parchami sympathizers were arrested or executed withouttrial. According to official Afghan sources, from April 1978 to September 1979 more than twelvethousand people were arrested and killed.In September, the Afghan media published transcripts of interrogations, including theconfessions of those who had been interrogated. According to the published materials, the goal ofthe planned coup was to overthrow the Khalqi government, which deviated from “the path of* In January 1980, right after Babrak Karmal came to power, Keshtmand would be appointed deputy head ofthe government. Assadullah Sarwari, who tortured him, would also be appointed as a deputy prime minister.200