Shahnawaz Tanai President

Lieutenant General Shahnawaz Tanai is a former communist general. He was chief of Afghanistan's army under the Republic of Afghanistan. His military positions included Commander of Artillery, Chief of the Army Staff, Chief of the KHAD Intelligence Network and then Minister of Defense during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.A pillar of the Communist Regime, Tanai later attempted a coup against his former friend and President Mohammad Najibullah, seeking refuge in a hostile Pakistan and working with fundamentalists such as Gulbadin Hekmatyar.He was a member of the Khalq faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, and leader of at least the majority of the Khalqi faction since its former leader Sayed Mohammad Gulabzoy was exiled as Ambassador to Moscow as part of the political preparation of the Soviet pullout, in September 1988.