NEW DELHI, India— Afghan troops cordoned off high schools in the capital of Kabul during commencement ceremonies last week and detained graduates for compulsory military service, a Western diplomat said Tuesday.

The diplomat, speaking on the condition she not be identified, said troops fired warning shots over the heads of students who fled the sweep. She quoted “multiple sources” in the Afghan capital as saying the army operation took place Dec. 16.

Some 150 students from the Lycee Esteglal, one of the city’s ‘most prestigious High Schools were scape despite regime threats to fire on them,” she continued, adding that “Afghan soldiers did fire their weapons, but only into the air.

A similar operation was conducted in Kabul last year, she said.

‘The report could not be in dependently verified, Western reporters are banned from Afghanistan, where some 115,000 Soviet troops are propping up the Afghan army and the communist government of President Babrak Karmal against Moslem rebels.

The diplomat said security had been tightened throughout the Afghan capital in anticipation of the anniversary this week of the Dec. 27, 1979 Soviet invasion.

Russian troop in flat Jackets neither patrolled the streets, a duty normally left to Afghan Units, and Soviet artillery and rocket batteries fired indiscriminately into areas outside Kabul to keep guerrillas away from the City, she said.

Despite the measures, rebels were able to stage rocket attacks on areas of the city for three straight nights beginning Dec. 20, although the extent of damage was not known, she said.

Last week’s operation at the high schools may have been the first order from Najibullah, the former chief of the Afghan secret police the Khad, in his new capacity as the second most powerful ‘man in the Kabul government, the diplomat said.

Najibullah was elevated to general secretary of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan about a month ago and Soviets may ‘well be grooming him to take over from Babrak Karmal,” she said,

Quoting “reports circulating in Kabul,” the diplomat said while a deputy now heads the Khad, Najjbullah has not only retained command of the secret police but also now controls the army and the Interior Ministry militia.

She said other indications of his new power were his recent chairmanship of a meeting of communist cadres within the air force and his “dominating presence at a similar meeting,” at the Interior try.

The news media also refers to him as lieutenant general, the highest rank held by any active member of the Afghan Military,” the diplomat said.

 

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 Article extracted from this publication >> January 3, 1986