During the period where Afghanistan was a
communist state known as the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, those that worked for the Ministry of Interior (MoI) were referred to as “
Sarandoy”. This label included traffic police, provinical officers and corrections/labor prison facility officers. The Ministry of Interior also had female personnel who were tasked with interacting with female civilians, such as when searching them at checkpoints. Those who worked for the Ministry of Interior were tasked with fighting “counter-revolutionaries”, securing government and party components and ensuring the safety of important structures. As of 1982, the Ministry of Interior may have had its own intelligence agency. The Sarandoy were a centrally commanded force and companies, battalions, and brigades reported to the “Directorate of the Defense of the Revolution of the Ministry of Interior”. It should also be noted that a gendarme forces also existed during the
monarchy and
Daoud Khan’s republic, and that personnel under the Ministry of Interior were trained by
Turkey from the 1950s well into the 1970s. Additionally, both
West Germany and
East Germany trained those in the Ministry of Interior and on the eve of the
Saur Revolution in 1978, Afghanistan’s officer corps and MoI personnel contained personnel who received training in the
United States. Regardless, the Sarandoy had far more numbers and were more effective due to the cooperation of the Soviet
MVD and its “Kobalt” units in 1981 and 1982 where 12,000 of these Sarandoy personnel were trained at MVD facilities in the
Soviet Union between 1978 and 1986, many of them being junior commanders and NCOs. 2,500 of these Sarandoy personnel would be trained in
Tashkent, the capital of
Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic for past excellence in combat. ==The first Islamic Emirate period==