The whole world, except for the population of the USSR, learned about the events of April 26-27, 1985, which took place near Pakistani Peshwar. But the Western media are sure that the KGB took revenge in the most cruel way for the deaths of Soviet prisoners of war who rebelled in a secret prison in Badaber.
The fortified area of Badaber was built by the Americans at the beginning of the Cold War as the Peshevar branch of the Pakistani CIA station. During the Afghan war, the village of Badaber housed a humanitarian aid center, which was supposedly supposed to prevent starvation among refugees. But in fact, he served as a cover for the school of militants of the counter-revolutionary Afghan party, the Islamic Society of Afghanistan, where Soviet prisoners of war who were considered missing in their homeland were secretly kept.
An excerpt from the analytical note of the intelligence service of the 40th Army, from which the classification of secrecy was only recently removed: “On April 26, 1985 at 21.00, during the evening prayer, a group of Soviet prisoners of war from Badaber prison, Pakistan, removed six sentries from artillery depots and, having broken the locks in the arsenal, armed herself, dragged ammunition to the twin anti-aircraft gun and the DShK machine gun mounted on the roof. A mortar and RPG grenade launchers were put on alert. Soviet soldiers occupied key points of the fortress: several corner towers and an arsenal building.
The entire personnel of the base was raised by alarm - about 3,000 people, led by instructors from the United States, Pakistan and Egypt. They tried to regain control of the fortress by storm, but were met with heavy fire and, having suffered heavy losses, were forced to retreat. At 23.00, the leader of the Islamic Society of Afghanistan Burhanuddin Rabbani raised a regiment of Mujahideen Khalid ibn Walid, surrounded the fortress and ordered the rebels to surrender, but received a response demand - to call representatives of the embassies of the USSR, DRA, Red Cross and UN. The 2nd assault began, which was also repulsed by the insurgent Soviet soldiers. By that time, the battle site was blocked by a triple encirclement ring, made up of dushmans and servicemen of the Pakistani army, armored vehicles and artillery of the 11th Army Corps of the Pakistani Armed Forces. Pakistani Air Force combat aircraft patrolled in the air.
The brutal clash lasted all night. The assault followed the assault, the forces of the rebels were melting, however, the enemy suffered significant losses. On April 27, Rabbani again demanded surrender and was again refused. He ordered to bring heavy artillery to direct fire and storm the fortress. Artillery preparation began and then an assault, in which artillery, heavy equipment and a link of Pakistani Air Force helicopters participated. When the troops broke into the fortress, the remaining wounded Soviet prisoners of war blew up the arsenal, perished themselves and destroyed significant enemy forces."
According to various estimates, from 12 to 15 Soviet servicemen participated in the uprising and died. The Mujahideen Rabbani and the 11th Army Corps of Pakistan acted against them, the losses of which amounted to: approx. 100 Mujahideen, 90 Pakistani regular troops, including 28 officers, 13 Pakistani officials, six American instructors, three Grad installations and 40 heavy military equipment.
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From the report of the radio interception of the headquarters of the 40th Army in Afghanistan on April 30, 1985: “On April 29, the head of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan (IPA) G. Hekmatyar issued an order, which noted that“as a result of an incident in the Mujahideen training camp in the NWFP of Pakistan, and 97 brothers were wounded. He demanded that the IPA commanders strengthen the protection of the captured OKSV prisoners. The order instructed “not to take the Russians prisoner in the future”, not to transport them to Pakistan, but “to destroy them at the place of capture”.
KGB revenge
But there was also an unofficial reaction from the USSR. According to journalists Karlan (Kaplan) and Burki (Burki S), the Soviet special services carried out a number of retaliation operations. On May 11, 1985, the USSR Ambassador to Pakistan V. Smirnov stated that the USSR would not leave this case unanswered. "Islamabad bears full responsibility for what happened in Badaber," Smirnov warned Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. In 1987, 234 Mujahideen and Pakistani soldiers were killed in Soviet raids on Pakistani territory.
1988-10-04 At Ojhri camp, located between Islamabad and Rawalpindi, a massive explosion of an ammunition depot took place, killing between 1,000 and 1,300 people. Investigators concluded that a sabotage had been committed. After some time, 1988-17-08. President Zia-ul-Haq's plane crashed. Pakistani intelligence services also linked this incident directly to the activities of the KGB as punishment for Badabera. For all this, in the USSR itself, these events did not receive publicity.