The Republican Revolution of 1973
Former Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud Khan led the coup with General Abdul Karim Mustaghni, who had been Chief of Staff of the armed forces.
Daoud promised radical land reform, the legalisation of political parties and other reforms. The Parcham was offered four minister posts in Daoud's government. As a Parcham member, Qadir was nominated vice-commander of the Afghan air force, while another Parcham supporter, Major Zia Mohammadzi Zia, was appointed head of the Afghan army. However, by 1974 Daoud removed and downgraded many of the Parcham ministers in the government. Qadir was thus downgraded to head of Kabul's Military abattoir. Many Parcham supporters, including Major Qadir, shifted allegiance to Khalq.
Suddenly in April 1978, Daoud and his hardline interior minister, General Abdul Qadir Khan Nuristani, launched a sharp government crackdown on the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). It proved to be a miscalculation. Major Qadir and Colonel Mohammad Aslam Watanjar, another leading PDPA member in the military, narrowly escaped arrest and early on April 27 Hafizullah Amin was able to smuggle out the order to restart the coup.
Read more about this topic: Abdul Qadir Dagarwal
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Kill me if I retreat
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—Mary Matalin, U.S. Republican political advisor, author, and James Carville b. 1946, U.S. Democratic political advisor, author. All’s Fair: Love, War, and Running for President, epigraph (from a Vietnamese battle cry)
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