1985 in Afghanistan
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Other events of 1985 List of years in Afghanistan |
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The following lists events that happened during 1985 in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is locked in military stalemate throughout the year, with neither the Muslim insurgents nor the Soviet-backed government troops mounting any decisive military offensive, though there are numerous operations and clashes. The insurgents appear better equipped than previously, with antiaircraft weapons in particular, in their efforts to counter government forces, who are aided by an estimated 115,000 Soviet soldiers. Afghanistan remains completely dependent on Moscow.
Afghanistan produces 31% of the world's opium, according to the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention.
Soviet-Afghan troops launch an offensive in the provinces of Konarha, Nangarhar, and Paktia in eastern Afghanistan and Nimruz and Herat in the west, part of a move designed to cut off guerrilla supply routes.
Karmal announces that membership of the ruling Communist Party has increased from 16,000 at the time it came to power to 120,000. On the same day, Afghanistan marks the 20th anniversary of the party's founding.
A UN report on human rights in Afghanistan accuses Soviet forces of "bombarding villages, destroying food supplies, massacring civilians, and disregarding the Geneva convention." The report claims that the government is holding 50,000 political prisoners and that tortures in jails are "commonplace." The government rejects the claims as "fabrication."
According to resistance sources in Pakistan, some 400 Soviet and Afghan troops are killed when a series of chain-reaction explosions triggered by a time bomb engulfs a military convoy at Ollamd, near the Salang tunnel.
Western diplomats claim that several hundred civilians have been killed in late March during Soviet-Afghan attacks in the provinces of Laghman in the east, Qonduz and Samangan in the north, and Herat.
A three-day Loya Jirga (grand council) is attended by 1,796 delegates. This traditional national tribal assembly had not been convened since the 1979 coup.
Pressure from the Pakistanis, from outside supporters, and from the guerrilla commanders force the seven major resistance groups based in Peshawar to form an alliance. Inside Afghanistan, neighbouring ethnolinguistically oriented resistance groups unite for military and political purposes within their various regions. Internal struggles for leadership also occur in certain areas where the Soviets have little influence, such as Hazarajat and Nurestan. Although no national liberation front exists, the resistance groups begin to feel that they are part of an overall effort to liberate Afghanistan.
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