in Kabul. There were allegations that Tanai had been sent by Pakistan to influence Afghanistan's politics in the post-Taliban period. He was also accused of working for Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). According to western diplomatic sources, Tanai acted as an agent for ISI by providing the Taliban a skilled cadre of military officers from the Khalq faction of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan to use his pilots to fly Mig-23, Sukhoi fighters of what was left of the Afghan Air Force, drive Soviet tanks and the use of Soviet artillery. However, most neutral sources doubt this claim, partly because Western sources have tended to play up the ISI's role in the Pashtun discontent, and partly because of Tanai's unpopularity with Pakistan's army and intelligence—as opposed to the Pakistan Peoples Party in power when he fled to Pakistan. In a 2009 interview, Tanai stated that the NATO troops are no different than Soviet troops and that they must leave Afghanistan. Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021, Tanai was pictured in October 2021 in Kabul in meetings with both Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and former president Hamid Karzai. On 7 March 2022, it was announced that Tanai had died at the age of 72 in an Islamabad hospital. References External links Interview with Gral. Tanai Pakistani description of Tanai's Coup 1950 births 2022 deaths Afghan military officers Communist government ministers of Afghanistan People from Khost Province Afghan expatriates in Pakistan Afghan expatriates in the Soviet Union Defence ministers of Afghanistan