These units were officially volunteer, and based on the "Cuban model";[1] they were armed by the government and employed to guard sensitive infrastructure and maintain public order.

[4] Bruce Amstutz documents DotR units composed of teenage urban males, numbering 20,000 on paper by the mid-1980s, who received US$162 per month for supporting the security forces.

Despite extensive coverage in Afghan media, all mention of the NODR disappeared following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979.

Amin was assassinated in the takeover, and the core staff who had developed the CDR and NODR were arrested and executed or simply disappeared.

Anthony Arnold suggests that the Soviets considered a loosely accountable body of irregular armed groups to be undesirable during their occupation.