Afghanistan, through a lifetime: Part 2

This series is based on the recollections of Hashmat Ghani. It spans from his childhood under the Kingdom of Afghanistan, what he saw and what he learned about the history leading up to the time he grew up in Kabul, the political turmoils that led to the communist takeover and eventual Soviet occupation through to the civil war and parts of present-day Afghanistan. The series is an examination and analysis of the last four decades of Afghan history through the eyes of one man who had access to several different segments of society.

The Baghi-Chahi Palace at Jalalabad was the winter royal palace of the King and Queen of Afghanistan. It is used during those months when Kabul is too cold to reside in.

By the mid-1960s and the 1970s, this is how Jalalabad looked: A new section called Reg-e Shahmad Khan, had been planned as a new city, construction had already begun.

The majority of Kabul’s elite started building winter villas there. Before that time, and as the new section was being built, the old city of Jalalabad, which was basically the small commercial sector at that time, was almost entirely owned by the Afghan Hindus and the Afghan Sikhs. They controlled pretty…