Here's an interesting short article from The Guardian about Kabul during the war.

The reporter Jonathan Steele heard mysterious explosions that were explained as coming from the quarries. But he did say in his honest opinion that the city didn't look like it was at war. Soviet soldiers were unarmed and on leave, the civilian populace was relaxed, and the Soviets didn't drive around in armored vehicles. Elsewhere he described the Soviet occupation as being similar to Vietnam. They had total control over the cities, but the countryside was a warzone.

So for what it's worth, suicide bombers were at least not very active in the urban centers during the war. That doesn't mean that they weren't driving up to Soviet FOB's, and of course the reporter could just be wrong.