The Saur Revolution
He also ordered the attack against the Arg, and against the Royal Palace of President Mohammad Daoud Khan. The tank commander on the ground was Colonel Aslam Watanjar, of the first battalion of the 4th tank brigade. Together, the troops under their command took Kabul. The government fell, and Daoud was killed.
At 7:00 P.M. on April 27, Qadir made an announcement over Radio Afghanistan, in the Dari language, that a Revolutionary Council of the Armed Forces had been established, with himself at its head. The council's initial statement of principles, issued late in the evening of April 27, was a noncommittal affirmation of Islamic, democratic, and nonaligned ideals:
| “ | "For the first time in the history of Afghanistan, the radio declared, the last remnants of monarchy, tyranny, despotism ... has ended, and all powers of the state are in the hands of the people of Afghanistan." | ” |
The Revolutionary Council was formed by himself, Hafizullah Amin, and Major Mohammad Aslam Watanjar, it assumed the control of the country until a civilian government was formed.
On April 30 the newly created PDPA's Revolutionary Council (with Nur Mohammad Taraki and Babrak Karmal in its leadership) issued the first of a series of fateful decrees. The decree formally abolished the military’s revolutionary council. A second decree, issued on May 1, named the members of the first cabinet that included Qadir as Minister of Defense.
Read more about this topic: Abdul Qadir Dagarwal
Famous quotes containing the word revolution:
“If the Revolution has the right to destroy bridges and art monuments whenever necessary, it will stop still less from laying its hand on any tendency in art which, no matter how great its achievement in form, threatens to disintegrate the revolutionary environment or to arouse the internal forces of the Revolution, that is, the proletariat, the peasantry and the intelligentsia, to a hostile opposition to one another. Our standard is, clearly, political, imperative and intolerant.”
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940)