Unconquered
On April 26, 1985, twelve exhausted but not broken Soviet soldiers, having freed nine more of their comrades, among whom were several captured soldiers of the Afghan army, began an unequal battle against many times superior enemy forces - regular units of the Pakistani army, hundreds of Afghan dushmans and their American instructors, led by the future President of Afghanistan Barhanuddin Rabbani...
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This happened in the village of Badaber, 24 kilometers from Peshawar, the second largest city in Pakistan. Here, under the guise of a refugee camp, there was a terrorist training center of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan (ISA), known as the Saint Khalid ibn Waleed Training Center. The general leadership of the center was carried out by the leader of the IOA B. Rabbani, the leader was the field commander and famous Dushman scumbag Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
The center occupied an area of 500 hectares. The training period for cadets was 6 months. The teaching staff was staffed by Egyptians and Pakistanis - a total of 65 instructors. The head of the center is Major Qudratullah of the Pakistani Armed Forces. He has 6 advisers from the USA. The eldest is a certain Varsan. After completing their studies, the cadets were sent to wage a bandit-terrorist war in Afghanistan by the leaders of the IOA at the provincial, district and volost levels of the provinces of Nangarhar, Paktia and Kandahar.
On the territory of the center there were 6 ammunition warehouses and 3 underground prisons where Soviet and Afghan prisoners of war were kept. The regime of detention is especially strict, isolated. “Incorrigible shuravis” – those captured in battle, those who resisted, those who did not convert to Islam – were sent to underground prisons. They began to be brought here in 1983-84, shortly before the events described. Before this, they were kept mainly in special pits-zindans, used for the most difficult work - in quarries, loading and unloading ammunition. For the slightest offense, and often without it, they were severely beaten.
The prisoners of the underground prisons were nameless. Instead of surnames and names - Muslim nicknames. The obstinate and rebellious were branded following the example of the fascist executioners. They starved me, giving me a sip of water a day and meager salty food into which drugs were added. They were kept shackled in shackles, which caused non-healing purulent ulcers on their arms and legs.
“Masters of the Other World,” as their foreign advisers called the guards, also came up with more sophisticated tortures. Particular care was taken to ensure that the person “breathed the smell of death” from the first hour of captivity. Those who were particularly obstinate were skinned, their ears and tongues were cut off, they were chained to rotting corpses, they were beaten every day with iron rods... During their captivity, Soviet soldiers turned into walking skeletons. And, despite everything, they rebelled.
According to Rabbani's recollections, the uprising was started by a tall guy who managed to disarm the guard who brought the evening stew. He opened the cells and released other prisoners. The dushmans and their instructors came to their senses only when the entire weapons-prison zone was in the hands of the rebels. All the inhabitants of the camp were alerted. The warehouse area was immediately cordoned off by militants. Parts of the Pakistani army were called in to help.
When people talk about the leaders of the uprising in Badaber, they most often mention conscript Dukhovchenko, who served as a mechanic at a military warehouse in Bagram and disappeared on May 1, 1985 in the province of Parwan, as well as civilian driver Nikolai Shevchenko, who disappeared on September 10, 1982 in the province of Herat.
Regarding the latter, there is even a version that Shevchenko, whose name in Badaber was “Abdurakhmon,” in fact only posed as a civilian driver - in any case, the decisiveness of his actions and the skillful organization of like-minded people makes us think that he could be an intelligence officer.
From the report of the intelligence center of the 40th Army on the events in Badaber: “On April 26, 1985, at 21:00, during evening prayers, a group of Soviet prisoners of war of the Badaber prison removed six sentries from the artillery warehouses and, having broken the locks in the arsenal, armed themselves, dragged ammunition to the twin anti-aircraft gun installation and a DShK machine gun mounted on the roof. The mortar and RPG grenade launchers were put on combat readiness. Soviet soldiers occupied key points of the fortress: several corner towers and the arsenal building.”
It is unknown exactly what goals the rebels pursued. According to some sources, they tried to break through to the gate to escape. According to others, their goal was a radio tower through which they wanted to contact the USSR Embassy. It is also known that among the Afghan prisoners there was a traitor who warned the dushmans about the uprising, after which the prison, fortress and arsenal were taken into a triple ring.
The brutal clash, during which Rabbani himself almost died, lasted all night. After a series of unsuccessful attacks, already late at night, Rabbani personally addressed the rebels with an offer to surrender, calling them by name, and even “sons.” The rebels responded with a categorical refusal and demanded that representatives of the UN, the Red Cross and the Soviet or Afghan embassies be called from Islamabad.
Rabbani promised to think, fully aware that fulfilling the demand means making public the fact of secret detention of prisoners of war in Pakistan, which declared itself neutral, which is a gross violation of the elementary norms of international law. The Dushmans and Pakistani troops were given an order to put an end to the rebel “Shuravi” as soon as possible and by any means possible.
More assaults followed. And new offers to give up. Shots were fired in response. The assault followed the assault, the forces of the rebels were melting away, however, the enemy also suffered significant losses. It is unknown how long this battle between a handful of doomed people and tens, hundreds of times superior forces would last. Soviet soldiers fought to the last bullet, to the last man - they did not expect mercy from the terrorists, preparing to give their lives dearly, and at least live their last hours as free people, with weapons in their hands.
Desperate to suppress the uprising, the command of the Pakistani armed forces decided to shoot the rebels using multiple launch rocket launchers and heavy artillery mounted on direct fire. At 8 a.m. on April 27, Rabbani personally took command of the operation. Simultaneously with the artillery fire, an airstrike was launched against the defenders.
From the report:
“The area of the uprising was blocked by Mujahideen detachments, tank and artillery units of the 11th Army Corps of the Pakistani Armed Forces. The Grad MLRS and a flight of Pakistani Air Force helicopters were used against the rebels. Radio reconnaissance of the 40th Army recorded a radio interception between their crews and the air base, as well as a report from one of the crews about a bomb attack on the camp. Only the joint efforts of the Mujahideen and Pakistani regular troops managed to suppress this uprising. Most of the rebels died a brave death in an unequal battle, and the seriously wounded were finished off on the spot.”
According to one version, the rebels, realizing the hopelessness of their situation, blew themselves up.
From a Radio Liberty broadcast on May 4, 1985: “A spokesman for the US Space Command headquarters in Colorado reported that satellite aerial photographs showed a highly destructive explosion in the northwestern province of Pakistan on April 27 from .G.".
The resulting fire destroyed the center's office, which contained lists of Soviet prisoners. On the site of the arsenal, fortress and prison, a huge crater formed. According to eyewitnesses, human remains were found 5–6 kilometers from the explosion site.
Rabbani announced the death of 20 dushmans, but other militant leaders contradicted him - they spoke of the losses of at least 100 - 120 terrorists. According to the intelligence of the 40th Army, at least 200 militants went to Allah, including about 100 Afghan dushmans, 9 representatives of the Pakistani authorities, from 40 to 90 officers of the Pakistani Armed Forces. 3 Grad multiple launch rocket launchers, about 2000 thousand missiles of various types and shells, 40 guns, mortars and machine guns were destroyed. 6 US military instructors were killed.
Since the beginning of May 1985, all information about the events in Badaber was subjected to the strictest censorship by the Pakistani authorities. The scene of events was visited by the Governor of the North-West Frontier Province, Lieutenant General Fazl Haq, and the President of Pakistan, General Zia Ul Haq, who had a difficult and unpleasant conversation with the leaders of the dushmans. After this conversation, field commander Hekmatyar, who was in charge of the destroyed terrorist training center, gave an order to his troops, which contained the clause: “Do not take Russians prisoner. If captured, destroy on the spot throughout the entire territory of Afghanistan”...
However, something still leaked out. And in the same May 1985, sensational news spread across world news agencies - in one of the “Afghan refugee camps,” Soviet soldiers captured by the Mujahideen rebelled. This information was also reported by the Novosti Press Agency on May 27.
Soldiers of the Soviet Army wrote reports so that they could be urgently sent to help the rebels. According to some reports, the GRU was preparing plans to conduct a “shadow” operation on the territory of Pakistan to free the prisoners by special forces already fighting in Afghanistan, but there was simply not enough time. This information may well be true, since Soviet special forces sometimes entered the territory of “neutral” Pakistan and caused a commotion there. One of the well-known episodes is the liquidation by two special forces with the support of aviation of a large base and fortified area of the Dushman “Islamic Regiment named after Abdul Vakil” in the Karera Gorge adjacent to Pakistan in August 1985.
Soviet and later Russian side has repeatedly appealed to the Pakistani authorities for permission to visit the camp, but was refused. From the official letters from the representative of the Russian authorities to the Chairman of the Committee for the soldiers-internationalists of the Council of CIS Heads of Government:
“The information about the heroic uprising of Soviet prisoners of war in the Badaber camp is confirmed by the documents of the US State Department at our disposal, materials of the Ministry of State Security of Afghanistan, testimony of direct eyewitnesses and participants in these events from the Mujahideen and Pakistanis, as well as statements by the leaders of the armed formations B. Rabbani (IOA), G Hekmatyar (IPA), etc. In addition, at the beginning of 1992, Deputy Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shahriyar Khan officially handed over the names of 6 participants in the uprising in Badaber..."
Official Islambad recognized the fact of the uprising in Badaber only after the collapse of the USSR, in 1992. This happened after Burhanuddin Rabbani himself spoke about the uprising.
Here is a list of alleged participants in the uprising: private Belekchi Ivan Evgenievich, sergeant Vasiliev Vladimir Petrovich, private Vaskov Igor Nikolaevich, corporal Dudkin Nikolai Iosifovich, mechanic Dukhovchenko Viktor Vasilyevich, private Zverkovich Alexander Nikolaevich, junior lieutenant Kashlakov Gennady Anatolyevich, junior lieutenant Kiryushkin German Vasilievich, junior sergeant Korshenko Sergei Vasilyevich, private Levchishin Sergei Nikolaevich, corporal Matveev Alexander Alekseevich, private Pavlyutenkov Nikolai Nikolaevich, private Rahinkulov Radik Raisovich, private Saifutdinov Ravil Munavarovich, junior sergeant Samin Nikolai Grigorievich, civilian Shevchenko Nikolai Ivanovich.
Based on the uprising in the Badaber camp, T. Bekmambetov and G. Kayumov made the film “Peshawar Waltz” - a poignant story about the Afghan war, and the famous Airborne Forces ensemble “Blue Berets” dedicated the song “In the Mountains near Peshawar” to the heroes.
English version :: Read in English The Unconquered