Abdul Qadir Dagarwal (1944-April 2014) was the Minister of Defense of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1982 to December 1986, both succeeded and preceded by Mohammed Rafie. He was instrumental in the 1978 Saur Revolution.
Biography[]
Dagarwal was born in Herat in the Kingdom of Afghanistan in 1944. Trained as a pilot in the Soviet Union, he was a colonel in the Afghan Air Force by the time of the 1978 Saur Revolution.
Backing the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), Dagarwal took over Bagram air base and used the planes to conduct air strikes on the presidential palace. In August, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan was declared.
In 1982, Dagarwal was made Minister of Defense of the republic during the Soviet-Afghan War, fighting the Mujahideen rebels in the countryside. In 1986, after many defeats, he was replaced by his former predecessor Mohammed Rafie.