Abdul Qadir was born in Herat in the Herat Province of the Kingdom of Afghanistan in 1944.^[2] He was an ethnic Tajik whose family hailed from Herat Province.^[3][4]

He went to the military school run by the Afghan Armed Forces and was trained as the pilot, qualified to fly the Mig-15, Mig-21, and Su-7, in the Soviet Union.^[2] His education comes from the Soviet Union, having studied and excelled in Russian staff colleges.^[2] During his career in the Afghan Air Force, he joined PDPA and later aligned with the Parcham (Flag faction).^[2]

In 1973, Colonel Qadir helped maneuver the coup d'état led by former Prime Minister Dawood Khan with support by General Abdul Karim Mustaghni, who had been Chief of General Staff of the armed forces. President Dawood Khan promised radical land reform, the legalisation of political parties and other reforms. Parcham was offered four minister posts in Daoud's government. As a Parcham member, Qadir was nominated vice chief of the Afghan Air Force, while another Parcham supporter, Major Zia Mohammadzi Zia, was appointed chief of the Afghan Army. However, by 1974 Daoud removed and downgraded many of the Parcham ministers in the government. Qadir was thus downgraded to head of Kabul's Military abattoir. Many Parcham supporters, including Colonel Qadir, shifted allegiance to Khalq.

In April 1978 Daoud and his hardline interior minister, General Abdul Qadir Khan Nuristani, launched a sharp government crackdown on the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). It proved to be a miscalculation. Colonel Qadir and Colonel Mohammad Aslam Watanjar, another leading PDPA member in the military, narrowly escaped arrest and early on 27 April Hafizullah Amin was able to smuggle out the order to restart the coup.

He also ordered the attack against the Arg, and against the Royal Palace of President Mohammad Daoud Khan. The tank commander on the ground was Colonel Aslam Watanjar, of the 1st Battalion of the 4th Tank Brigade. Together, the troops under their command took Kabul. The government fell, and Daoud was killed.^[5]

At 19:00 on 27 April, Chairman Qadir made an announcement over Radio Afghanistan, in the Dari language, that a Revolutionary Council of the Armed Forces had been established by him, with himself as the leader of the country. The council's initial statement of principles, issued late in the evening of 27 April was a noncommittal affirmation of Islamic, democratic, and nonaligned ideals:

For the first time in the history of Afghanistan, the radio declared, the last remnants of monarchy, tyranny, despotism ... has ended, and all powers of the state are in the hands of the people of Afghanistan.

The Revolutionary Council was formed by himself, Hafizullah Amin, and Major Mohammad Aslam Watanjar, it assumed the control of the country until a civilian government was formed. On 30 April the newly created PDPA's Revolutionary Council (with Nur Mohammad Taraki and Babrak Karmal in its leadership) issued the first of a series of fateful decrees. The decree formally abolished the military's revolutionary council. A second decree, issued on 1 May, named the members of the first cabinet that included Qadir as Minister of Defence. When interviewed by French journalists from Télévision Française 1, on 11 May 1978, Abdul Qadir appeared to be sweating profusely.^[6]

He became minister of defense, for three months starting in May 1978. On 6 May Qadir asked the Soviet commanders for advice on how to deal with all the people under arrest. On 17 August, Qadir, still defence minister, was arrested for his part in a conspiracy that allegedly had been organized by the Parchams exiled abroad. Since Qadir remained popular in the military, President Taraki did not dare to kill him and instead he was sentenced to fifteen years in jail.^[5]

The policy of Taraki and Hafizullah Amin to get rid of people they considered unsuitable in order to concentrate all power in their own hands became very apparent. Prime Minister Amin later reported:^[7]

The party was unable to make Qadir a true Marxist–Leninist, prepared to withstand any negative influence. That was our mistake.

After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 that assassinated Hafizullah Amin, Qadir was released from jail under the new regime of Babrak Karmal, the political posts he held in the PDPA before being sent to jail were restored. He served once again as Minister of Defence (1982–1985) during the Babrak Administration.^[5]

After the Soviet Invasion, Kabul was put in a state of siege. The bridges were blocked, barriers and hidden ambushes were set up on all the roads leading into the city. Qadir was made commander of the city. As part of the changes in the leadership of the country, he resigned from the Politburo in November 1985, a year later was appointed Ambassador to Warsaw, Poland by President Mohammad Najibullah. He was recalled to Afghanistan in 1988, and was subsequently elected to Parliament. After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, it was believed he fled to Bulgaria and sought political asylum.^[5]

After some years of living in Bulgaria, Qadir returned to Russia, where he lived with his family. In 2011/2012 he returned to Afghanistan, where he lived in Kabul and completed his book. He died as a result of a stroke at Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan National Military Hospital on 22 April 2014.^[8]

At a mourning ceremony in Moscow to honour the memory of Ahmad Shah Massoud

"Though Massoud and I used to be enemies I am sure he deserves great respect as an outstanding military leader and, first of all, as a patriot of his country".^[9] - 2001-09-21

• Abdul Qadir Dagarwal's obituary (in Persian)
• » В Кабуле скончался участник Саурской революции генерал Абдул Кадир Хан (in Russian)