[5][6] Some claim that between April 1978 and December 1979, the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) under Nur Muhammad Taraki, executed around 27,000 political prisoners at Pul-e-Charkhi.

In December 2006, a communist-era mass grave, close to the Pul-e-Charkhi prison, was discovered by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

[8][9][10][11] Officials of the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture believe that the massacre took place between 1978 and 1986 when the Moscow-backed communist presidents, Nur Muhammad Taraki, Hafizullah Amin and Babrak Karmal were in power.

The rioters used makeshift weapons to attack guards, then ignited furniture on fire, and smashed doors and windows.

Gunfire was heard in the complex and inmates claimed to be holding hostage two members of the Afghan National Army (ANA).

[16] However, after a tour of the facility, during its modernization, it was realized that, for cultural reasons, captives could not be expected to share a toilet with another man.

Afghan cultural modesty would not allow a captive to use a toilet with another man present, cutting the capacity of the modernized facility in half.

On May 6, 2007, two American soldiers, Colonel James W. Harrison Jr. and Master Sergeant Wilberto Sabalu, part of the oversight team, were shot dead by one of the Afghan guards.

[19] By September 2009 the United States had transferred some 250 former detainees from its Guantanamo Bay detention camp to Pul-e-Charkhi, often to the shock of their waiting families, according to Human Rights First.