Active Pakistani involvement during Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

[get straight]

First, How would one know.

Second, would it be a surprise?

Pakistanis are an emotional lot....they even attacked Israel drunk in there misguided fraternal craziness(Zaid himid is one such fruit of that era).

Diplomacy isent there strong point , well u can blame Zia for that if im correct.

you dont fight a war based on emotions, war costs many thing, needs brains to play the stretegy

Nops, you're misinformed. It was our pilots in Syria / Jordan / Egypt flying CAP missions, while Arabs feasted on breakfast. With the advantage of

1. Good training
2. Dozen or so different dialects of Pushto to choose from, Israelis listeners used to get confused.

That's how we were able to shoot down couple of their AC's.

But the guys who shot down the Israelis, give testament to this date about the ferocious flying abilities of the Israelis.

pashto brother you are forgeting saif ul azam, a bengali!!

 

[Hashshāshīn]

I am interested in the events and how they were handled and what made the Pakistani army to put their special forces in the active line of duty,you know what I mean.Actively fighting the a huge power like the Soviets has its own implications.

Yes but back then, the US were actually real 'friends' with Pakistan. They were loyal allies, which doesn't seem to be the case anymore. US had warned the Soviets that attacking Pakistan would cause retaliation from them.

 

[Hyperion]

Thanks for the congrats. I'm from a long line of soldiers who served their motherland and most of them went up to LG

There were many such missions, what I can disclose is that they numbered in multiples of hundreds.

All below is unclassified.

One story that I can elaborate on is, that this particular cousin was presumed dead for three months, all funeral prayers etc etc we all took part in. Then after 5 months, the guy comes back home in a pair of slippers. The story we were told was that he killed the *WHOLE* police station where he was being held at in Kabul and then escaped bare-footed and mingled in local tribes for four months before he returned home.

There are also other stories of other family members such as one uncle also SSG, who once in good old days also served as point guard for protection of Ronald Regan. Then the same guy was in *COMMAND* of all of special forces of Bahrain.

It will be a bit difficult for you to digest all of the above, but, if you see their CV's and what they are doing now Even I shi* in my pants sometimes...

congratulations to your first cousin on being Major General.Its an honour.He must have some great stories to share!
I am interested in the events and how they were handled and what made the Pakistani army to put their special forces in the active line of duty,you know what I mean.Actively fighting the a huge power like the Soviets has its own implications.
Can you please point out any specific incidents apart from the Hill 3234 ?

@ Splurgenxs
A better way of approach would be not generalizing the people and being specifically to the point as anything beyond that is an utter loss of time and bandwidth,both uncontrollable vectors.

 

[nForce]

No buddy, it was just pure job. Nothing to be emotional about. Targets were assigned, mission were planned and executed. Most made it back, some got caught. But the ones who got caught were not that easy to distinguish between, most officers that were used were actually Pathans and belonged to the Powindahs.

its a job ,I get it..important thing is what prompted the PA to take it up as a job..they were already doing quite fine with pumping in the Stingers and other stuffs.did PA perceive Soviet presence as such an imposing threat that made them take such measures?

 

[Hyperion]

Actually my respects to the Bengalis as well. One of them, whom I can't name right now, retired couple of years ago as AVM, was one amazing aviator!

you dont fight a war based on emotions, war costs many thing, needs brains to play the stretegy



pashto brother you are forgeting saif ul azam, a bengali!!

 

[BATMAN]

So Pakistani involvement was limited to SSG.

 

[Hyperion]

its a job ,I get it..important thing is what prompted the PA to take it up as a job..they were already doing quite fine with pumping in the Stingers and other stuffs.did PA perceive Soviet presence as such an imposing threat that made them take such measures?

Simply put, it was a good exercise for different SSG regiments. Think of it like this, what is the first thing RAW graduates do? Mostly if I remember correctly, is they are assigned to "Sabzi Mandis" selling fruit and vegetables This is where they hone their skills. Similarly, an SSG 'officer' will be worthless if he hasn't seen first hand "asymmetric" warfare.

So Pakistani involvement was limited to SSG.

Nops. Signals also took active part. And don't forget AF personnel with the USAF at 'badda bear' Peshawar!

 

[BATMAN]

its a job ,I get it..important thing is what prompted the PA to take it up as a job..they were already doing quite fine with pumping in the Stingers and other stuffs.did PA perceive Soviet presence as such an imposing threat that made them take such measures?

Both Russians and Pakistanis were entrapped in American plan.

It was time of great cold war.

 

[nForce]

found this article about Hill 3234,Khost,Afghanistan, a part of Operation Magistral .seems like good read.

 

[Hyperion]

found this article about Hill 3234,Khost,Afghanistan, a part of Operation Magistral .seems like good read.

nForce mate, unofficial history of PA is littered with hundreds of such 'nameless' operations. You just need to be in-touch with the right people, or belong to the right family to have access to it.

We as a nation have never been ball-less. It's just that, on many occasions our own people have sold our souls at the lowest possible bids.

 

[nForce]

Simply put, it was a good exercise for different SSG regiments. Think of it like this, what is the first thing RAW graduates do? Mostly if I remember correctly, is they are assigned to "Sabzi Mandis" selling fruit and vegetables This is where they hone their skills. Similarly, an SSG 'officer' will be worthless if he hasn't seen first hand "asymmetric" warfare.


Nops. Signals also took active part. And don't forget AF personnel with the USAF at 'badda bear' Peshawar!

dont know much about RAW activities.They are not in the habit of putting their training curriculum up in some websites.
but it must have been a tremendous learning experience for the SSG folks,i.e putting people in active duty,so that they can prepare for active duty.
I am not much convinced about the Peshawar incident though(if you are pointing towards the U2 incident).
Firstly,it happened much before Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Secondly,I dont think,back in the early 60s the Pakistani govt did anything beyond providing landing air-bases and refuelling facilities in exchange for industrial development support.

nForce mate, unofficial history of PA is littered with hundreds of such 'nameless' operations. You just need to be in-touch with the right people, or belong to the right family to have access to it.

We as a nation have never been ball-less. It's just that, on many occasions our own people have sold our souls at the lowest possible bids.

honestly.. considering you people ball-less.. no.. never.. just lacking the right leadership,vision and far-sightedness at some times,not always.but thats off topic.. we can talk in volumes regarding that later,lets just not dig on that right now.

 

[Hyperion]

No badda bear //sometimes referred to as bare// base was maintained until the end of Soviet occupation. <<==(Purely funded and staffed by Yanks ++ some AF elements from us) Nothing to do with the U2 incident, though.

Don't you know of any AF encounters between PAF & SU? Hmm.... maybe none of them have been published! Lemme check today and will get back to you on it.

dont know much about RAW activities.They are not in the habit of putting their training curriculum up in some websites.
but it must have been a tremendous learning experience for the SSG folks,i.e putting people in active duty,so that they can prepare for active duty.
I am not much convinced about the Peshawar incident though(if you are pointing towards the U2 incident).
Firstly,it happened much before Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Secondly,I dont think,back in the early 60s the Pakistani govt did anything beyond providing landing air-bases and refuelling facilities in exchange for industrial development support.

Not entirely accurate, but will give you the gist of things:

PAF Falcons - The PAF in the Afghan War

Read between 1979 - 1988

Pakistan Air Force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But as much as one dozen unconfirmed kills also need to be added!

 

[nForce]

No badda bear //sometimes referred to as bare// base was maintained until the end of Soviet occupation. <<==(Purely funded and staffed by Yanks ++ some AF elements from us) Nothing to do with the U2 incident, though.

Don't you know of any AF encounters between PAF & SU? Hmm.... maybe none of them have been published! Lemme check today and will get back to you on it.

ohh yes.. the PAF and Soviet AF encounters indeed..must had been exciting times...ofcourse we all know about them.

But you know what I feel ?I feel, at times the Pakistani leadership went a bit over-ambitious.You know,the U2 incident,the participation of PAF personnel against Israel,participation in Afghanistan, a little over-harping on the Muslim Ummah thing... Probably Zia contributed much to that.
He was a great leader of course.I consider a leader to be great and worth mentionable because of his works.A great leader is one who takes active decisions,supports them with fully,not one who goes with the flow and takes no decision.He believed in one ideology and he sticked to that till the very end.His actions made him a sworn enemy for my own country but then I am not judging from that point of view here.
He indeed had the balls to show a middle finger to the Soviets.But why did he do that?Why did active PA participation became a necessity ? Was it to please the Americans or for the sake of Pakistan?

 

[Hyperion]

It wasn't about any great leadership. It was about self-preservation, period. Zia was like asbestos. His doings, we all are paying decades later. Regarding the Soviet invasion, any other sane leader would have done the same, so giving Zia credit will be like giving credit to a doctor that exposed you to dangerous medicine with side affects years ago, that is killing you now.

Moreover, Zia was more than a crazy doctor, he was in fact reincarnation of the devil himself So lets keep him out of all this

ohh yes.. the PAF and Soviet AF encounters indeed..must had been exciting times...ofcourse we all know about them.

But you know what I feel ?I feel, at times the Pakistani leadership went a bit over-ambitious.You know,the U2 incident,the participation of PAF personnel against Israel,participation in Afghanistan, a little over-harping on the Muslim Ummah thing... Probably Zia contributed much to that.
He was a great leader of course.I consider a leader to be great and worth mentionable because of his works.A great leader is one who takes active decisions,supports them with fully,not one who goes with the flow and takes no decision.He believed in one ideology and he sticked to that till the very end.His actions made him a sworn enemy for my own country but then I am not judging from that point of view here.
He indeed had the balls to show a middle finger to the Soviets.But why did he do that?Why did active PA participation became a necessity ? Was it to please the Americans or for the sake of Pakistan?

 

[Xestan]

Reposting: SSGs were surely involved at some fronts. There are many great examples of bravery shown by both the forces, even the aggressors, I still admire Soviets for their bravery, Americans are sitting ducks compared to them

excerpt from Aukai Collins' book 'My Jihad'.