Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan began deteriorating again in the 1970s after Pakistan supported Islamist movements against the progressive and Soviet-influenced Afghan government of Mohammed Daoud Khan , and encouraged the Islamists to rise up against the government . The figures included Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Ahmad Shah Massoud-both members of the Jamiat-e Islami students ' political society - and the Haqqanis . In April 1978 , Afghan President Daoud Khan was assassinated in Kabul during the self-declared Marxist Saur Revolution . This was followed by the execution of deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in April 1979 and the assassination of Afghan President Nur Muhammad Taraki in September 1979 . After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 , the United States joined Pakistan to counter Soviet influence and advance its own interests in the region . In turn , Afghan , Indian and Soviet intelligence agencies played their role by supporting al-Zulfikar – a Pakistani leftist terrorist group responsible for the March 1981 hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines ( PIA ) plane . Al-Zulfiqar was a Pakistani left-wing organisation formed in 1977 by Mir Murtaza Bhutto , son of former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto . Its goal was to overthrow the military regime that ousted Bhutto . After March 1981 Al-Zulfiqar claimed no further attacks . The Bhutto family and Pakistani military dictator Zia-ul-Haq shared a common enemy , as Zia was the one supporting attacks against the Afghan government
1981 hijacking
1981 Pakistan International Airlines hijacking
Afghanistan–Pakistan relations