Afghans Reportedly Send Former Leader to Prison

Former Afghan leader Babrak Karmal, who dropped from power last year, has been arrested in Afghanistan and is in prison, the New China News Agency reported Sunday. The agency quoted unidentified diplomatic sources in Islamabad, Pakistan, as saying that Karmal was sent to Pul-e-Charki prison in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

The Chinese agency said the order to arrest Karmal, the former Afghan president and head of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, came from the ruling Revolutionary Council, which Karmal, 58, headed during the nearly seven years he was in power.

The Chinese agency said the reason for Karmal’s arrest was not known. It said he had been under house arrest for some time.

In Moscow, an official with the Afghan Embassy said the report of Karmal’s arrest might be “propaganda from imperialists.”

China has aided guerrillas who are battling Afghan government troops and an estimated 115,000 Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan.

Karmal was established as Afghan party leader, the country’s top post, on Dec. 27, 1979, when his predecessor, Hafizullah Amin, was killed in a coup reportedly backed by the Soviet Union. The Soviets at the same time sent troops into the country.

Karmal’s disappearance from the political scene in Afghanistan has been a gradual one.

On May 4, 1986, Karmal was removed as party leader but kept the titular presidency and membership on the ruling Politburo. Last Nov. 21, the Afghan government announced he was retiring from all posts at his own request.

He was succeeded as party leader by Najib, former head of the Afghan secret police.