Qualla: Ojhri Camp Disaster

Ojhri Camp Disaster: Introduction

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At 10:30 on the morning of April 10, 1988, a box of Egyptian rockets caught fire inside a military compound wedged between two of Pakistan's largest cities. Within ten minutes, 10,000 tons of arms and ammunition -- stockpiled for the Afghan mujahideen as part of the CIA's Operation Cyclone -- began detonating in a chain reaction that sent rockets and munitions screaming across Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The New York Times reported more than 93 dead and 1,100 wounded. The truth about what started the fire, and why the camp sat in the middle of a populated area, remains contested to this day.

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Ojhri Camp Disaster: A Secret in Plain Sight

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ojhri Camp occupied a site in Rawalpindi Cantonment, the military district of a city with millions of residents. It served as the primary transit depot for weapons flowing from the CIA to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and onward to mujahideen commanders fighting Soviet f...

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Ojhri Camp Disaster: Ten Minutes of Warning

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The fire that destroyed Ojhri Camp started small. A box of Egyptian-made rockets, armed with fuses before shipment in violation of safety protocols, ignited. For eight to ten minutes, the fire burned while the enormous stockpile sat untouched. Then the ammunition began to cook of...

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Ojhri Camp Disaster: The Blame Game

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In the immediate aftermath, U.S. Defense Department officials pointed to the Soviet Union and the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul, noting that the explosion resembled the pattern of previous attacks against Pakistani military installations. But competing theories quickly emerged. Some...

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Ojhri Camp Disaster: The Prime Minister Who Asked Questions

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo made what would prove to be a fateful decision: he ordered a parliamentary inquiry into the Ojhri Camp disaster. It was the kind of accountability that civilian governments are supposed to provide over military operations, and it was precisely ...

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Ojhri Camp Disaster: What Remains

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Today, the site of Ojhri Camp bears little trace of the catastrophe. The Cold War that fueled it ended, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the mujahideen whom the weapons were meant to supply fractured into factions that would reshape Central and South Asian politics for decades. Bu...

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