Biography of Comrade Dr.Faiz Ahmad

Founding leader of
Afghanistan Liberation Organization (ALO)

Comrade Dr Faiz Ahmad was born in Qandahar, Afghanistan, in 1946. He developed keen reading habits even from his primary and secondary school years in Qandahar, but it was only after he transferred to Naderia High School in Kabul that he became acquainted with revolutionary writings. His first acquaintance with the ideology of the proletariat left such a deep impression on his mind that to the end of his days he looked up to this revolutionary ideology not only as the sole torch lighting the path of struggle, but also as a science and as the weapon for the emancipation of the masses from the clutches of imperialism, capitalism and reaction. The proletarian ideology which encompasses insightful understanding of all aspects of nature, human society and human thought so enraptured Comrade Dr Faiz Ahmad’s intellect that he often spent more than twelve hours a day in its study. Reminiscing in later years, he used to say, “This science is a limitless ocean. I had to try to at least take a sip.” It was during high school years that Comrade Faiz Ahmad came in contact with Comrade Akram Yari, one of the initiators of the revolutionary movement in Afghanistan.

Comrade Yari was his teacher in Naderia High School and Comrade Dr Faiz Ahmad always spoke of him fondly as an erudite Marxist and a dignified revolutionary.

After graduation from high school, Comrade Faiz Ahmad entered the Medical Faculty of Kabul University. His years in medical studies coincided with the half-hearted attempts of the incumbent royal clique in putting up a show of democracy in Afghanistan. Some freedom was granted for political activity and publications. Comrade Faiz Ahmad was not a member of the Progressive Youth Organization, yet nevertheless his advice was always sought in organizing demonstrations and political activities staged under the name of New Democratic Political Current by the PYO. Comrade Faiz Ahmad was one of the most prominent exponents of New Democracy doctrines in student polemics and was noted as an ardent and erudite polemicist against the Khalqi and Parchami revisionists.

The university years were amongst Comrade Dr Faiz Ahmad’s most fruitful ones. During those years, Comrade Faiz Ahmad introduced the science of revolution to a great number of university students and other intellectuals and trained many in the particularities of the Afghan revolution, organizational principles, underground political activity and work among the masses. Studying and summarizing the experience gained from the work of the PYO, Comrade Faiz Ahmad reached the conclusion that the PYO was laboring under consequences of grave mistakes. He therefore set himself two prime duties: to set up a revolutionary organization and to disseminate its views and standpoints. Despite daunting work and perseverance this required, Comrade Dr Faiz Ahmad was able to succeed in responding to this essential need of the revolutionary movement in Afghanistan. Through his efforts, the Revolutionary Group of the Peoples of Afghanistan (RGPA) was founded and worked steadfastly under the guidance of Comrade Faiz Ahmad.

A palace coup in 1973 toppled the monarchy and King Zahir Shah’s cousin and former prime minister, Daoud, proclaimed Afghanistan a republic with himself as president. After working to gain stability for his government, Daoud embarked on a campaign to legitimize his coup and convened a traditional Loya Jirga [Grand Assembly] to ratify the new Constitution he presented. Soon after the Loya Jirga, the RGPA published its renowned treatise Daoud’s Constitution Fetters Our People. This treatise, which was widely distributed as a clandestine tract, struck a chord in the hearts and minds of revolutionaries and struck panic in the heart of Daoud’s government. These events coincided with the joining of Comrade Majeed Kalakani and his supporters with the RGPA. In deference to Comrade Faiz Ahmad, Comrade Majeed Kalakani relegated the organizational retraining of his supporters to the RGPA.

With the occupation of our homeland by the Soviet Union, Comrade Faiz Ahmad set the rallying slogan of “All resources at the service of liberation fronts!” as the interim objective of all revolutionary struggle and was instrumental in reorganizing and renaming the RGPA as the Afghanistan Liberation Organization. Active participation in the war of resistance with concurrent establishment of close bonds with the masses were two major guidelines set forth in a compendium of overall correct theses and policies by Comrade Faiz Ahmad in the publication Mash’al-i Rehayi [The Beacon of Emancipation, An ALO political-theoretical publication].

While leading the ALO against the two-pronged onslaught of the Russian occupation forces on the one hand and the war imposed on the revolutionary movement by Islamic fundamentalist forces spearheaded by Golboddin Hekmatyar’s band, Comrade Faiz Ahmad singled out Golbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-i Islami [Islamic Party] as a nefarious, ultra-reactionary, anti-national and anti-democratic political band and underlined the danger this ultra-reactionary band posed for the revolutionary movement and democratic forces in Afghanistan. The stress of leading a foremost revolutionary organization against multitudinous assaults from left and right in conditions of a national liberation war being hijacked by Islamic fundamentalists began to tell on Comrade Faiz Ahmad’s health. In addition to gastric ulcer, Comrade Faiz Ahmad developed a heart problem in 1986, but in spite of all his suffering he insisted on not revealing his health problems to other comrades within the ALO. He was working to the utmost of his capability on the second issue of Mash’al-i Rehayi and could not afford himself the luxury of taking his doctors’ advice and going abroad for treatment. He persevered until he completed the work he had set himself to. The ALO was in the process of preparing travel documents for Comrade Faiz Ahmad for his treatment, but he was not destined to receive treatment as through the high treachery of an individual who had lurked within the ranks of the ALO he was led into a trap and handed over to the bitterest enemy of the revolutionary movement and revolutionary intellectuals. The blood of Dr Faiz Ahmad, founder and leader of the ALO and a great son of the people of Afghanistan, was spilled in the torture dungeons of Golbuoddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-i-Islami in November 12,1986. Comrade Dr Faiz Ahmad succumbed under torture, but his spilled blood served to amplify the slogans that he had stridently raised. His blood has colored the proud banner of Afghan revolution and of the ALO, and has strengthened and solidified his comrades’ resolve to continue his glorious path.

In a document commemorating the fourth anniversary of Comrade Faiz Ahmad’s martyrdom it is noted, “On this fourth anniversary of the day on which our dear comrade and leader adorned our ALO banner with his blood, we, his comrades and pupils, are gathered here not to read eloquent requiems in his memory nor to give fine speeches. We remember his personality, his life, his work, and his realistic role as it was, so that -as we have so often mentioned in the past-should draw strength and inspiration from what he was and what he did.”

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