Afghan says Brezhnev planned to annex country

An Afghan secret police chief has defected to Pakistan and told the authorities there that the late Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev once planned to annex his country, the British Broadcasting Corporation said.

The BBC said Lt. Gen. Ghulan Siddiq Miraki, deputy head of the Afghan secret police, claimed Mr. Brezhnev had a three-stage plan in which Afghan President Babrak Karmal was to hold a congress and have himself elected president, call in more Soviet troops on the grounds there was an imperialist threat, and announce that the country was becoming part of the Soviet Union. The plan was allegedly abandoned because of opposition within the Afghanistan government.