Panjshir Front

The expansion of the territory controlled by the Panjshir Front dictated the creation of military and administrative structures at the same time. The following were created: judicial committees, a committee on cultural issues, a council on education and culture, as well as a council of ulema .
Panjshir Front created 22 (twenty-two) bases, scattered throughout the length of the valley. To help weak bases, mobile groups were created that, when attacking the Panjshir, could enter the battle before its development and attacked the enemy in areas outside the valley. They were sent to help the bases subjected to the advance of the Soviet troops.

Each of the bases was located in one of the secondary gorges adjacent to the valley and was divided, in turn, into two main and one auxiliary garrisons; thereby a certain flexibility was achieved, and it was difficult for the Soviet troops to abruptly eliminate the base. The composition of the mobile groups was recruited from among the various bases of the Panjshir Valley. This approach increased the morale of the Panjchers and facilitated the establishment of interaction between different bases and minimized the contradictions that sometimes took place between the leadership of the front and the command of some of the bases. In the event of a defeat of a mobile group, this approach to the formation of its personnel contributed to a more even distribution of losses between different bases, rather than their concentration in one area.

During the battles over the course of the nine months of 1982, 1983, the leadership of the Panjshir Front, using the acquired combat experience, divided the members of the bases into members of the strike groups and those involved in logistical and economic affairs.

The formation of the supervisory board and the combination of the leadership of the Panjshir Front with the activities of this council, which included 50 of the most experienced Panjshir warriors and 50 rebels from other fronts, subsequently contributed to the formation of the leadership of the so-called Islamic army on their basis.

Each of the rebel groups consisted of 32 (thirty) armed, trained, and equipped fighters. The armament of this group consisted of two RPG-7 hand grenade launchers, 1 PK machine gun and AK-47 assault rifles. At the head of the group was the commander with his deputy. The main group, in turn, was divided into three smaller, 10 (thirteen) people each, one of whom was its commander. This group was able to conduct offensive and defensive actions and be in reserve.

Since the beginning of the armed struggle, the leadership of the Panjshir Front have been focused on expanding the territory of military operations against OKSVA. It was possible to achieve this result: by distributing weapons, financial assistance, combat training - directing to neighboring fronts, to increase combat experience and skills. The main political task of the Panjshir Front was to represent the symbol of the Afghan resistance.

Panjshirskoe gorge is a long, narrow valley surrounded by high mountains on both sides. On both sides there are many small gorges adjacent to it. It is located northeast of Kabul , the capital of the DRA, and borders the provinces of Parvan , Kapisa , Lagman , Badakhshan , Tahar and Baghlan .
Two strategic points are adjacent to Panjshir: Salang , popularly called the throat of Kabul and the military airfield Bagram . The Panjshir Front actively used this affinity in the fight against OKSVA and Government forces. In this regard, front leaders came to the conclusion that one of the main tasks is to establish unity of action between geographically close fronts.

With the introduction of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, in order to organize a guerrilla war in the central and north-eastern part of the country, a single combat command, the Panjshir Front was created by the spiritual leader Burkhanuddin Rabbani and the largest field commander Ahmad Shah Masoud (A.Sh. Masoud) - advanced combat unit of the IOA party. To fight against the Government in Kabul and the Soviet troops, the IOA, including the “Seven Islamic Parties”, better known as the Peshawar Seven Union, received significant financial resources and military assistance - as part of the secret operation Cyclone from the US CIA, as well as a number of Western European countries; states of the Islamic world and the Middle East: Saudi Arabia , Pakistan , Iran , UAE , Egypt , Jordan and others. However, despite extensive external financial assistance, the Panjshir Front mobilized all the domestic economic resources available in the valley and took complete control of the extraction of all mineral resources in the valley. Significant funds came to the IOA budget from the development of emerald deposits.

In the areas of silver mining in the rock, a large number of developed abandoned mines formed, resembling a sieve with a large number of holes. Subsequently, in these mines the support and observation posts of the Panjersherts were equipped. The gorge served as a convenient transportation corridor for the supply of weapons and ammunition by pack transport from Pakistan, as well as a place for organizing training facilities for the rebels, both in the valley itself and in the surrounding ones.

The success of the Panjshir Front is largely due to the formation of rear reserves. Significant deposits of emeralds are found in the upper part of the valley. Since ancient times, the population of these areas has been developing them; the income received from the sale of sold unprocessed jewelry, in the amount of 20%, was transferred to the Panjshir Front.

In the upper reaches of the Panjshirsky gorge - in the Pavat locality, in the villages: Piryakh, Mabin, Zaradhak - 10-13 kilometers southeast and east of the settlement Pishgor, each of which was concentrated from 20 to 40 mines, as well as in the Darkinj gorge. The population of this region existed on funds from the sale of emeralds and paid dues from the extracted stones to the treasury of the Panjshir front. The emerald mined in the valley was transported to Pakistan for processing, and from there it spread around the world. The amount of funds earned for emeralds, on average per year, amounted to $ 10 million. Rock mining was carried out by Japanese drilling rigs with the involvement of Western European engineers. In addition to the extraction of emeralds, supporters of Ahmad Shah Masud in the Jarm district in Badakhshan province, mined lapis lazuli.

In addition to the extraction of precious and semiprecious stones, silver mines have been developed since the earliest times in the lower part of the Panjshir Gorge in the area of ​​Jariy-ab. The mined silver was sent in contact with Panjshir, the Andarab valley, where silver items were made from it.

In order to replenish the treasury of the Panjshir Front, a decision was made to levy taxes from the Panjshir population: from the harvest of agricultural crops; from income from the mining industry - the extraction of emeralds and lapis lazuli; five percent tax levied on the salaries of public servants and the income of artisans. The proceeds from these revenues were transferred to the Finance Committee, which was available at each rebel base.

Panjshir Front Bases

According to Abd Al-Hafiz Mansour, an Afghan historian, Panjshir, who describes the activities of the Panjshir front, he had the following bases in the valley:
Pariyan, Havak, Dasht-i Ravat, Safid Chekhr, Khanch, Pashgur, Am-times, Astana, Paranda, Chamalurda, Tavakh, Anaba, Zamankur, Shotal, Da-ra-yi Khazar, Sadah va Karaman, Abdullah-Hale, Manjhur , Talha wa mala, Khasarak, Abdara, Faraj. ^[1] .

At the initial stage of the Afghan war, in a limited theater of operations - the Soviet troops were opposed by a few mujahideen groups formed on the principle of clan, tribal and religious (Sunnis, Shiites, Ismailis) affiliations.
Groupings, competed and often, openly at enmity, with each other. The split of the opposition was in the hands of the Soviet military intelligence and was used in the interests of the troops. And yet, in the face of the approaching large-scale hostilities from the Soviet troops, the unity between the conflicting opposition groups was temporarily - but, nevertheless, established.
Discarding all the existing contradictions and strife, disparate formations acted as a united front. In the future, for effective combat control of troops and rear support, the leaders of the IOA party, a combat plan was developed.

It consisted of uniting armed units along the entire length of the Panjshir Gorge into a powerful striking force, called the Panjshir Front (PF). The PF was well organized in terms of combat control and rear support. On the basis of the PF, the IOA's goal was to make it a symbol of all Afghan resistance. The leading role of the PF consisted in the planning, organization and management of the combat operations of the IOA units - in the central, northeastern and western parts of the country, in close cooperation with other rebel fronts - in the likeness of a regular army.

The commanders of the IOA groups of the “center” and “northeast” groups came to the need to reach an agreement on full cooperation, and, depending on the current situation, to a unified combat command of neighboring fronts. The obtained combat experience with the feat of them towards the formation of two main fronts - the Panjshir and North-East. The reason for this was the effectiveness of the use of forces and means, as well as the control over the spending of funds allocated by foreign sponsors for guerrilla warfare in a particular region, and the desire to achieve leadership in the competition for the volume of foreign aid distributed.

Equally with the IOA, the pro-Pashtun Islamic Party of Afghanistan (IPA), formed three months earlier than the IOA, in 1973 in the city of Peshawar (Pakistan), spiritual leader Gulbeddin Hekmatyar, held a strong position in the northeastern region. IPA is the second largest political party in the "Union of the Mujahideen of Afghanistan", or the "Peshawar Seven."

The degree of influence of the IPA Gulbuddin Hekmatyar in the northeastern and northern provinces of Afghanistan, due to the large number of Pashtuns living in the region who inhabited this region in the 19th and 20th centuries, was also high. The mass migration of Pashtuns to the northern provinces of the country - Afghan Turkestan, Kattagan (a historical region in the north-east of the country) and Badakhshan, from the places of their traditional residence (eastern, southeastern and southern provinces) at the turn of the century was called “Pashtunization” of the northern territories. It was aimed at blocking the threats of separatism along the northern borders and strengthening the power of the rulers of the Emirate (Pashtun by nationality) over the local “non-Pashtun” population: Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras and other peoples.

At different time stages, the supply of the Panjshir Front in Andarab, Najrab and Kuhistan was blocked by units of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan. This led to the fact that foreign assistance was ceased to be delivered to Panjshir Valley from the center of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan in Peshawar (Pakistan): weapons, equipment and food , paralyzing the activities of the IOA A.Sh. Masouda.

I sent my people to Andarab several times to agree on the opening of the road to Hawak, but other "Islamic parties", among which there are no real Muslims, did not come down to our requests. On the contrary, they only exacerbate our plight, demanding money for soap and matches from destitute, hungry and unhappy people. In the Pole Hesar district (the Andarab county district, where the IPA detachments of Gulbetdin Hekmatyar were based - a footnote from the text), they mocked the Panjershets and sentenced them to jail for several days. Delivery of goods from Peshawar to us cannot be carried out due to the blocking of the road in Saidheil (Parvan province - footnote from the text)

- A.Sh. Masoud in a letter to the emissary Dr. Ishaq 12/24/1982

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Panjshir Front played a leading role in organizing and coordinating the activities of fronts in 5 (five) northern provinces adjacent to Panjshir: Kunduz, Baglan, Tahar, Parvan, Kapisa . On their basis, the so-called Supervisory Board was created, which solved military-political and economic problems.
“Panjshir Front” under the command of A.Sh. Masuda was assigned a dominant role. In the future, such associations began to be created in the west and south of Afghanistan, the main role was assigned to the party of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan .

The IOA NA, as the main body, solved the whole range of military-political tasks facing the fronts: developed a plan for the upcoming military operations, established interaction between the actions of commanders, organized rear support (weapons, ammunition, equipment, food), distributed financial resources. The Supervisory Board reorganized the previously existing structure of armed groups and proceeded to the creation of an “Islamic Army” (IA).

The use of IA was designed for various scale armed clashes, raids on communications and public authorities. Important in the work of the IA was given to the struggle for the minds and hearts of ordinary and illiterate Afghans, agitation and propaganda among the personnel of the Afghan government forces: the army, police, and state security forces.

• “Panjshir in 1975-1990 through the eyes of an Afghan historian” Abd al-Hafiz Mansour (translated by S. Grigoriev) Publisher: St. Petersburg University ISBN 5-288-01647-X 1997 Russian Format: DJVU
• "Citizen, politician, warrior." A.A. Lyakhovsky, V.M. Nekrasov - M .: 2007
• “Unique. Book 5 "V.I. Varennikov V.I.

• "Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979-1982" Mohammed Kakar 1997
• Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan, Third Edition G. Whitney Azoy 2011
• “War in Afghanistan” Mark Urban 2016 p. 295
• Crises Confronting Afghan Women: Under the Shadow of Terror Alia Rawi Akbar 2010
• “Secret plans open faces: from the withdrawal of Russians to the fall” Gulbiddīn Ḥikmatʹyār, S. Fida Yunas 2004

• Afghan war (1979-1989)
• Panjshir operations
• Ahmad Shah Masoud
• Panjshir Gorge
• The fighting of the Afghan war (1979-1989)
• 40th Army
• 1982 Panjshir operation
• Panjshir Operation 1984
• 1985 Panjshir Gorge Operation
• “Offensive in Panjshir (1980-1985)” (English — Wikipedia) “Panjshir offensives” (English Wikipedia)