On September 14 to 16, 1979 Hafizullah Amin seized full power in Afghanistan, deposing President Nur Muhammad Taraki after a palace shootout and having him killed weeks later, the culmination of the deadly power struggle within the ruling communist party that helped precipitate the Soviet invasion at the end of the year. Amin, who had taken the prime ministership from Taraki in March 1979, had grown increasingly dominant. When Taraki returned from a Havana summit, a confrontation followed: Amin arrived at the presidential palace on September 14 amid a shootout, escaped, and returned with supporters to take Taraki prisoner.
On September 16, 1979 Amin had himself named head of state, head of government, and party general secretary. Taraki was reported to have died of illness, but he was in fact killed on Amin's orders, smothered around October 8, 1979. The dataset dates this September 16, 1979 and codes Taraki's fate as killed and arrested or jailed, reflecting his imprisonment and subsequent killing.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Target identified in Coup Atlas research: President Nur Muhammad Taraki, deposed and imprisoned by Amin around September 14 to 16, 1979 and killed weeks later.
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Nur Muhammad Taraki (president deposed, imprisoned, and killed)
Hafizullah Amin (who seized full power)
Sources
A growing personal struggle with General Secretary Taraki led to Amin wrestling power away then successfully deposing him and later ordering his execution, and on 16 September 1979 Amin named himself Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, and General Secretary of the PDPA Central Committee.
Amin ordered the death of Taraki, and it is believed Taraki was suffocated with pillows on 8 October 1979, after which the Afghan media reported that the ailing Taraki had died, omitting any mention of his murder.
On September 14, 1979 Amin overthrew Taraki and declared himself president, and his nationalist views and attempts to improve relations with Pakistan and the United States drew the mistrust of the Soviet Union before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979.
When Amin arrived at the People's Palace a shootout occurred, Amin escaped unhurt, returned later with some of his supporters and used the Palace Guard to take Taraki prisoner, and a few days later Amin's government announced that Taraki died of an undisclosed illness.
Killings protocol applied: the deposed president Taraki was imprisoned and then killed on Amin's orders; the death claim is cited and attributed, and the conflicting official account is recorded prominently: the Amin government announced Taraki had died of illness, whereas sources state he was in fact smothered around October 8, 1979. Fate coding: killed and arrested or jailed, matching the dataset (Taraki was first taken prisoner, then killed). Date nuance: sources give the seizure as September 14 (Britannica) or September 16 (Amin's formal assumption of the top posts, the dataset date), reflecting the gap between the palace confrontation and the formal takeover; both are recorded. Paired thematically: this closes the Taraki-Amin struggle whose first stage was the March 27, 1979 record. Arc forward: Amin's own rule lasted about three months; the Soviet Union invaded on December 24, 1979, killed Amin, and installed Babrak Karmal, a distinct later event that this internal bloodletting helped precipitate. Context: PDPA purges and mass repression are recorded as documented background.
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Nur Muhammad Taraki, deposed and imprisoned by Amin around September 14 to 16, 1979 and killed weeks later..
Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; killed; arrested or jailed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →