Kerala massacre

Kerala massacre
Location Kerala, Kunar Province, Afghanistan
Date April 20, 1979 (1979-04-20)
Deaths 1,170–1,260[1]
Perpetrators Afghan Army (Khalq)

The Kerala massacre (no connection to the state in India) refers to an incident on April 20, 1979, when the then Marxist government of Afghanistan's soldiers and policemen drove to a village called Kerala in Kunar Province, eastern Afghanistan, shooting at over one thousand unarmed civilians.[2][3]

Background

Kerala was a farming community of 5,000, around 12 miles from the Pakistan border. Much of Kunar Province had seen fighting between the Communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Army personnel and rebels hiding near the mountains since the Saur Revolution in 1978. On April 19, the day before the massacre, local rebels attacked an army garrison in the nearby town of Chaga Serai.[4]

About 200 armed government troops and police, along with a few Soviet advisors, arrived in tanks in the village on Friday, April 20. The troops ordered a jirga (gathering) with the males in the village, who the Army accused of collaborating with anti-government rebels.[5] The officers aimed their Kalashnikovs at the men and told them to shout pro-communist slogans. Instead, the men shouted Allahu Akbar.[6] The officers ordered them to crouch down facing the tanks, and soon after started shooting at them - assumingly on the orders of a Soviet advisor who radioed from a helicopter - while women and children, including wives of the victims, watched on in shock from a mosque adjacent to the massacre scene. Having killed the victims, bulldozers arrived thereafter and buried the bodies in a mass grave.[7] At least 1,170 people in total are believed to have been murdered. The villagers hold a memorial every April 20 since in honor of the victims.

In October 2015, Sadeq Alamyar was arrested by Dutch police in the Netherlands on suspicion of war crimes. Alamyar, who was commander of the elite Afghan Army 444th Commando Force at the time, is accused of ordering the killings and for having shot the victims himself. A Khalqist, Alamyar was apparently jailed in the 1980s during the rival Parchamite faction rule of Babrak Karmal before he fled to the Netherlands for asylum.[8][9]

See also

Reference

  1. ↑ Afghanistan: The Soviet War by Edward Girardet, 1985. Page 110
  2. ↑ "A grim chapter in Afghanistan war". 4 February 1980 – via Christian Science Monitor.
  3. ↑ "The Kerala Massacre". Washington Post. 1980-02-06. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-02-06.
  4. ↑ Afghanistan: The Soviet War by Edward Girardet, 1985. Page 107
  5. ↑ "Sadeq Alamyar – TRIAL International". trialinternational.org.
  6. ↑ Afghanistan: The Soviet War by Edward Girardet, 1985. Page 109
  7. ↑ https://www.pajhwok.com/en/2015/11/03/kerala-residents-want-sadeq-alamyar-sentenced-death
  8. ↑ "Dutch arrest in Afghanistan's Kerala massacre - Afghanistan Analysts Network". www.afghanistan-analysts.org.
  9. ↑ "Massacre Families 'Thankful' for Arrest After 36 Years". NBC News. Retrieved 2018-02-06.

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