Baw’ess, Abharuddin

A Tajik from the Darwaz district in the province of Badakhshan, Abharuddin Baw’ess studied for three years in the College of Theology of the University of Kabul without completing his studies. Like Tahir Badakhshi, Baw’ess believed in national struggle instead of class struggle. By “national struggle” he meant a struggle of the ethnic minorities against Pashtun “domination.” Baw’ess advocated violence in attaining this goal. With the help of his followers he occupied the district of Darwaz for a while in 1975. Afterward he lived in hiding until the Khalqis eliminated him in 1978. Later in the year his followers kidnapped the U.S. ambassador Adolph Dubs. Under the instruction of Soviet advisers, the police killed all in storming the hotel where they had been. In 1979 Baw’ess’s radical faction was called SARFA. Pressured by the mujahideen, this small faction, known as Sitam-e-Milli or “national oppression,” cooperated with the Karmal regime by serving it with contingents of militias in the provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar. Its leaders also entered the regime.