Khalq was the radical faction of the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan that was led by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin. The Khalqists consisted of Pashtuns from the rural Afghanistan, and the party split with Babrak Karmal's Parcham faction in 1978. While Taraki argued that a tightly-disciplined working class party could achieve a Leninist revolution, Karmal argued that Afghanistan was too underdeveloped to achieve a successful revolution, and the Khalq faction would be overthrown in 1979 after Taraki and Amin were killed by the Soviets and the Parcham faction. In December 1989, 127 Khalqist officers were arrested for attempting to launch a coup against Mohammed Najibullah's Parcham faction, and Khalqist general Shahnawaz Tanai supported Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's 1990 coup. Former Khalqists would support both Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hezbi Islami and the Taliban. Following the US invasion in 2001 former Khalqists Officers would form the Khost Protection Force a CIA backed paramilitary organization.
