Afghan exile reports breakdown in Kabul

A former senior bureaucrat in the Soviet-backed Afghan government who fled from Kabul reports that central control of Afghanistan's political, economic, and administrative structure has collapsed.

Muhammad Yusif Farand, formerly with the Finance Ministry, said when he left the Afghan capital Oct. 11 that there were strong rumors the Babrak Karmal regime might soon be replaced by another Communist administration, that the government had given up collecting taxes, and that the only industrial concern given serious attention was natural gas exports to the Soviet Union. He added that the textile trade, once the country's third-largest industry, was almost at a standstill because of rebel attacks.