The leader of Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG), a faction that fuels Afghanistan’s insurgency, has withdrawn from peace talks after raising the hopes of the Afghan government that an agreement was near. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, HIG’s leader, has toyed with the Afghan government in the past.
Hekmatyar terminated peace talks on June 27 after claiming that Afghanistan’s national unity government was not supported by the people. He demanded that the Afghan government disband.
Hekmatyar announced the end of negotiations yesterday in an article that appeared on Peshawar Daily Shahadat, an official HIG mouthpiece.
Afghan officials felt that a deal with Hekmatyar and his HIG faction was imminent. But evidence of Hekmatyar’s betrayal surfaced last week, when he issued new demands for a peace agreement that could not possibly be met by the Afghan government. On June 21, Hekmatyar wrote a letter to Afghan President Arshaf Ghani that said that the government must end all agreements with the US and order the withdrawal of US and other foreign troops from Afghanistan.
His demands match those of the Taliban, which refuses to conduct peace talks with the Afghan government.
Hekmatyar’s cessation of peace talks with the Afghan government should come as no surprise, as he withdrew from peace negotiations in 2010 under similar circumstances. In March 2010, as US forces were surging in Afghanistan and the Taliban was under military pressure to negotiate, Hekmatyar and the Afghan government entered talks and there was hope that HIG would cease its fighting. However, he issued a 15-point peace plan that included the full withdrawal of foreign troops and the disbandment of the Afghanistan government. He had also offered the Afghan government similar terms for peace in December 2009.
Hekmatyar is a notorious opportunist who has ties with al Qaeda, Iran, and Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment.
A key player in the Soviet-Afghan war, Hekmatyar led one of the biggest insurgent factions against both Soviet and Afghan communist forces. But Hekmatyar’s brutal battlefield tactics and wanton destruction of Kabul following the collapse of the Afghan Communist regime in the early 1990s led to the demise of his popularity. The Taliban overran his last stronghold south of Kabul in 1995 and forced him into exile in Iran from 1996-2002. He reentered the fighting in Afghanistan after US forces invaded in late 2001.
HIG forces have conducted attacks in northern and northeastern Afghanistan, and have bases in Pakistan’s Swat Valley as well as in the tribal agencies of Bajaur, Mohmand, and North and South Waziristan.
After the Taliban, Hekmatyar leads one of the largest insurgent factions in Afghanistan. HIG has close ties to al Qaeda and other jihadist groups based in Pakistan and Central Asia. In May 2006, Hekmatyar expressed his support for al Qaeda and its emir, Osama bin Laden.
“We thank all Arab mujahideen, particularly Sheikh Osama bin Laden, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, and other leaders who helped us in our jihad against the Russians,” he said in a recording broadcast by Al Jazeera.
“They fought our enemies and made dear sacrifices,” Hekmatyar continued. “Neither we nor the future generations will forget this great favor. We beseech Almighty God to grant us success and help us fulfill our duty toward them and enable us to return their favor and reciprocate their support and sacrifices. We hope to take part with them in a battle which they will lead and raise its banner. We stand beside and support them.”
Late last year, rumors surfaced that Hekmatyar joined the Islamic State, however he quickly responded that was not the case.
“Hezb-i-Islami neither has relations with the Islamic State, or any commitment to the group,” Hekmatyar told Peshawar Daily Shahadat in October 2015.
4 Comments
HILARIOUS!
That anyone thought this guy would agree to anything without the complete removal of foreign forces first is just hilarious. Oh and by the way, if you think this guy will keep to any agreement he makes you would be fooling yourself. He seems determined for power and will take any advantage he make take over you if it only puts itself within his reach.
Consider this about Hekmatyar. I’m going from memory here so please anyone, correct me where I may be mistaken. My point will stand such corrections.
In ’73 socialists took power in Afghanistan deposing the king. This new government’s ideology clashed right away with the islamist youth group formed in the university. I believe led at least partially by hekmatyar formed during the period known as new democracy. The islamists leadership, openly opposed to government, hekmatyar included, fled to pakistan. They attempted a coup in ’75 from their base in Pakistan and it failed miserably. This group going into Afghanistan to attempt the coup was to include Hekmatyar but somehow he didn’t actually make it into Afghanistan and he was left behind, sole leader of the group as everyone else was killed or captured including such people as Ahmad Shah Massoud who would never again trust Hekmatyar or put himself with his easy or even difficult grasp suspecting that the coup failed because of treachery from the power hungry Hekmatyar.
Nobody should negotiate with Hekmatyar. It is a total and complete waste of time.
I fear for the number of American and western lives that have fallen due to some trust hope or deal regarding Hekmatyar during this longest war in American history.
The Soviets were smarter than we seem to be about this terrible place. They realized very quickly. within 2-3 years that their intervention they felt dragged into was a mistake.
They figured out how to escape though. We have found our own Najibullah in Karzai and now Ashraf Ghani yet we don’t leave.
How about a DRONE specially for this Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He is more than deserving of attention from th DRONE. Actually, it is at least ten years over due.
Agree, Having spent a year in Afghanistan and doing some extensive reading, this guy is truly needing to assume room temperature, my research begins with “The Gem Hunter” by Gary Bowersox. This is a bad man, this Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Hey, why the long faces? He played the ISI like a violin, ending up with the lion’s share of the arms and ammo we paid for. Then he sat and did nothing, knowing full well the arithmetic favors the least bloodied side once the Soviets ran for the border. He will play along, drawing the game out until he sees no more benefit, or plays us off against the other suckers in the long game. Yeah, he has earned his HellFire, but someone must still think he’s useful for something or he’d gotten hit already.
Dostum wasn’t that smart but at least he’s in retirement rather than pushing daisies