1988 in Afghanistan
overview of Afghanistan-related events during the year of 1988
The following lists events that happened during 1988 in Afghanistan.
As the Soviets begin to leave, the division between Afghan Marxists and Muslims becomes even sharper, and the fear of even bloodier fighting heightens. Leaders of the Pakistan-based Muslim insurgent groups vow to continue fighting until they topple the Marxist regime and proclaim Afghanistan an Islamic republic. Efforts by the government either to form a coalition or to bring King Mohammad Zahir Shah back from his exile in Italy failed.
Incumbents
President: Mohammad Najibullah
Chairman of the Council of Ministers: Sultan Ali Keshtmand (until 26 May), Mohammad Hasan Sharq (starting 26 May)
Vice Presidents: Abdul Rahim Hatif, Mohammed Rafie, Abdul Hamid Mohtat and Abdul Wahed Sorabi (starting May)
April 1988
Elections are held for a two-chamber National Assembly to replace the Revolutionary Council. Although the elections are boycotted by the Mujahideen, the government leaves vacant 50 of the 234 seats in the House of Representatives and a small number of seats in the Senate, in the hope that the guerrillas will abandon their armed struggle and present their own representatives to participate in the new administration. The PDPA itself wins only 46 seats, but is guaranteed support from the National Front, which gains 45, and from the various newly recognized left-wing parties, which win a total of 24 seats.
14 April 1988
The United States, the Soviet Union, Pakistan, and Afghanistan sign an agreement in Geneva after years of painstaking efforts by the UN to end one of modern history's most bitter conflicts. Under the accord Afghanistan and Pakistan pledge not to intervene in each other's affairs and to work for the safe, voluntary return of refugees.
15 May 1988
The withdrawal of an estimated 115,000 Soviet troops, who had entered Afghanistan in December 1979 to prop up a faltering Communist regime, begins.
The public source identifies “1988 in Afghanistan” as overview of Afghanistan-related events during the year of 1988. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Afghanistan, overview and Afghanistan-related.
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This entry incorporates text from “1988 in Afghanistan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.