As Soviets Leave, Afghan Chief Sees Pakistan Plot

As the last Soviet motorized unit completed its withdrawal over Afghanistan’s Salang Pass, Soviet media Saturday reported that Muslim guerrillas were bombarding three cities held by Afghan government troops.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Najibullah accused Pakistan of massing troops along the border in preparation for an invasion and eventual annexation of his nation.

In a speech broadcast on national radio and television, Najibullah said his government had received information that Pakistan planned to first attack the provincial capital of Jalalabad, about 80 miles east of the capital of Kabul and 50 miles west of the Pakistan border.

“Militarist and reactionary parties envisage swallowing our country and turning it into a fifth province of Pakistan,” the president said in his strongest attack yet on Afghanistan’s neighbor.

Pakistan has allowed Muslim guerrillas, or moujahedeen , to operate from Pakistan. Pakistan, the United States and Iran have supported the guerrillas, who began fighting the government in 1978 after the Communists took power in a coup. In 1979, the Soviets sent troops into Afghanistan to prop up the pro-Marxist government.

Under a U.N.-mediated accord, all Soviet troops must be withdrawn from Afghanistan by Wednesday.

In Moscow, the official Tass news agency said moujahedeen rebels were shelling Khost in eastern Afghanistan, Kandahar in the south and Herat in the west, all scenes of heavy fighting throughout the war. It reported casualties among the local population but did not specify how many.

A guerrilla bomb also exploded in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, killing five people and wounding 20, Tass said.

Rebels were also firing on Afghan army posts in the eastern province of Nangarhar and had attacked a U.N. convoy of 47 trucks carrying food to Jalalabad, Tass said.

The fighting came as the Soviet withdrawal entered its final phase, with Radio Moscow saying the rear guard of the main column of departing Soviet troops had cleared the Salang Pass, 120 miles south of the Soviet border.

It said 39,093 troops had returned home so far in the final stages of the pullout. By Western estimates that would leave some 11,000 still to go by Feb. 15, the deadline under the U.N.-sponsored Geneva accords signed last April.