Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

Hezb-e Islami leader Hekmatyar is received in Kabul's presidential palace by President Ashraf Ghani and his predecessor Hamed Karzai in May 2017. Photo: Tolo

A Matter of Registration: Factional tensions in Hezb-e Islami

Thomas Ruttig •

Hezb-e Islami has run into a legal conflict over registration. This hampers efforts to re-unite the party’s various factions after the return of its ‘historical’ leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and in the run-up to the elections planned for 2018. It also reflects internal dynamics between a more pragmatic wing of Hezb-e Islami, which is participating in […]

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Hekmatyar’s Return to Kabul: Background reading by AAN

AAN •

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the notorious leader of Hezb-e Islami, returned to Kabul today. After several years of on-and-off talks, between the Afghan government and envoys of the party’s leader-in-hiding, a deal allowing his return was finally signed in September 2016. Several months of negotiations on the finer details of the deal’s implementation followed. An overview of AAN’s past […]

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A sign of recent changes in the bazaar of Shamshatu, which would be more crowded before the new changes of 2016. Though the crowd in the bazaar has been considerably reduced, more people are expected to leave the camp. The possible new returns can further cause downsize to the business in the bazaar of Shamshatu camp.

Moving Out of Shamshatu: Hezb-e Islami’s refugee followers between hope of return and doubts about the peace deal

Fazl Rahman Muzhary •

Shamshatu refugee camp, headquarters of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hezb-e Islami in Pakistan since the 1980s, is increasingly empty. Many residents, including a number of important Hezb leaders, have left for Afghanistan, encouraged to return by the peace agreement signed by Hekmatyar and President Ashraf Ghani in September 2016. The deal paved the way for the return […]

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HIG leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Photo: website of Shahadat daily.

Hekmatyar taken off UN sanctions list: Paving the way for his return – and Hezb-e Islami’s reunification?

Thomas Ruttig •

The United Nations has lifted the sanctions against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan. This was the next step in the implementation of the peace agreement signed by the Afghan government and Hezb in September 2016. It paves the way for the return of the former mujahedin leader, one of the […]

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HIG leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Photo: website of Shahadat daily.

Almost Signed? The peace agreement with Hezb-e Islami

Martine van Bijlert • Thomas Ruttig •

On 18 May 2016, two delegations representing respectively the insurgent faction of Hezb-e Islami-ye Afghanistan and the Afghan High Peace Council (HPC) initialled a draft peace agreement that should end Hezb’s armed struggle. The status of the document – and whether it may still be subject to changes – is not fully clear, but there is […]

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Taleban for the Ghani Cabinet? A look at a BBC report

Thomas Ruttig •

It sounded like ‘breaking news’ from Kabul: “The Taliban have been offered posts in the new Afghan government, but have turned them down, the BBC understands. The offer came from new President Ashraf Ghani in a bid to end the insurgency that threatens the recovery of the country.” The BBC report, that came just before […]

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