During the war it was repeatedly attacked by the Afghan mujahedeen using magnetic depth charges supplied by the British Secret Intelligence Service, who also crossed the bridge to commit sabotage operations in Soviet Uzbekistan. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence also planned to train militants to destroy the bridge through underwater demolition, but Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq rejected the idea to avoid Soviet reprisals on Pakistani communities near the border with Afghanistan. At the end of the war it was the site of the final withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989.