Victim’s Name: Dawood
Date of Incident: September 1, 1979
Place of Incident: Polygon, Pul-i-Charkhi Prison
Dawood was born in late April 1951 in Kabul. He started his school in 1957 at the Bibi Mahro Primary School in a suburb area of Kabul. In 1969, he graduated from Ghazi High School and later in 1970, he joined the Police Academy. Though he was not interested in his work, he continued in order to make our parents proud. In 1972, he graduated from the police academy and started working in the criminal investigation sector of the Kabul Police Division. He was a committed, patriotic, and honest officer and would not tolerate corruption. However, due to the nature of his work, he was faced with a corrupt senior officer and was shifted to another sector.
In 1977, he started his duty as the Police Chief of Criminal Affairs in Bamiyan Province and a few months later he was appointed to the District of Yakawlang. He was a critic of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan regime. He spoke up against their violent approach in eliminating political opponents. On August 4, 1979, the AGSA arrested him near the Afghanistan Radio Station building and took him to Shashdarak Detention Center for opposing the party and their regime. Later, he was taken to the Sedarat (Premier) House for interrogation and torture.
Before Dawood, my brothers, Shakoor and Arif, and I were arrested and taken to Pul-i-Charkhi Prison. After a few months of detention, we were released but Dawood disappeared. Our efforts to contact him and find out if he was alive or dead ended with no result. All my family members, especially my parents were waiting for his return but he never did. My mother always believed he was alive and would return sooner or later and she waited until her last breaths.
Just a few years ago, a list of 5,000 PDPA victims executed between 1978-1979 was released by the Kingdom of Netherlands. Dawood’s name was on the list, numbered 4,102. I will never forget that day. Finding his name on the list ruined my day and reminded me of all the memories we had together. I could not stop crying but I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, I was happy because we at least came to know what had happened to him even if took 35 years. On the other hand, I was sad because despite those long years of waiting, we still hoped for his return. He was executed in Pul-e-Charkhi prison on September 1, 1979, only a month after his arrest. It is very likely that he was shot down with other prisoners and buried in the mass graves around the Polygon Area so we still do not know where his body is or where he is buried.
