Red carpet for the ‘Butcher of Kabul’!

[Devil Soul]

Red carpet for the ‘Butcher of Kabul’!
By Naveed Hussain
Published: May 7, 2017
22SHARES
SHARE TWEET EMAIL

Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. PHOTO: FILE

It’s the ’90s. Afghanistan is caught up in a bitter civil war. The seven ‘jihadi’ factions that drove the Soviets out of their country are now embroiled in deadly infighting for the spoils of war. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the chief of Hizb-e-Islami party, is the key figure whiplashing the spiral of violence. His fighters are entrenched on the strategic hills overlooking Kabul, from where they fire barrage after barrage of rockets at the capital, flattening one-third of the city’s neighbourhoods. Kabul lies in ruins. And its residents are living a nightmare.

The wanton death and destruction forces President Burhanuddin Rabbani to name Hekmatyar the prime minister in 1993. Nonetheless, the brutal warlord refuses to vacate his strategic base on the hilltops and shift to the Prime Minister’s House. He only comes to the capital escorted by truckloads of his ferocious fighters to preside over cabinet meetings. And if a meeting doesn’t go well, he goes back to his base to unleash a fresh salvo of rockets on the capital. The siege continues till 1996. An estimated 50,000 lives — mostly civilians — are lost. Countless others are maimed for life. The bloodletting earns Hekmatyar the moniker of ‘Butcher of Kabul’. After the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, he goes into hiding to lead his fighters in a deadly insurgency for the next two decades.

Future fast-forward. It’s April 4, 2017. Hekmatyar, now 69, triumphantly returns to a hero’s welcome in Kabul, the city he and his merry men had once reduced to rubble. Gun- and grenade-totting fighters are escorting Hekmatyar in a huge convoy of cars, pickup trucks and SUVs, while military helicopters are flying overhead. The notorious warlord of yesteryear is flanked by President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and former president Hamid Karzai as he struts the red carpet at the Presidential Palace during a welcome ceremony. Ghani and Abdullah are beaming with joy. Hekmatyar, the leader of Afghanistan’s second biggest militant faction, has “heeded the peace call”. And for Ghani, this is no mean achievement. At the ceremony, Hekmatyar urges other insurgents, particularly the Taliban, to renounce violence and join the “caravan of peace”.

ADVERTISEMENT



The next day, he makes an impressive public appearance at Kabul’s Ghazi football stadium which is full to capacity. His cheering supporters, out in massive numbers, have turned up to see and listen to Hekmatyar after 20 years. The ageing warlord appears to have no regrets. He proudly speaks about the ‘bravery’ of his comrades-in-arms, though now he is “willing to work with everyone for reaching the sacred goal of peace”.

Some analysts believe Hekmatyar’s acquiescence to give up violence and submit to Afghanistan’s constitution is a turning point. For them, the development has raised hopes that Ghani can win over more enemies — and eventually quell the festering conflict. Sceptics, however, say it’s a vain hope. They believe Hekmatyar is a toothless wolf now, unable to prey. And his pack already dwindled. Hekmatyar’s renunciation of violence is unlikely to end the spiral of violence because it’s the Taliban who hold the key to peace. Conversely, fears abound that Hekmatyar, an ethnic Pashtun, might fuel simmering tensions in the ethnically polarised Afghan society. And this will only compound problems for the fractured national unity government which is already grappling with economic, political and security challenges.

This debate aside, one thing is clear: Hekmatyar’s return to Kabul has brought back bitter memories for the residents of the city who he had tormented for four long years. For thousands of Afghans who had lost their dear-ones in Hekmatyar’s rocket blitzes, the pompous homecoming of the ‘Butcher of Kabul’ has only added insult to injury. Hekmatyar — once a UN-designated global terrorist — is accused of numerous atrocities and crimes against humanity. And retributive justice demands he doesn’t get away with this.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2017.

 

[LeGenD]

Impressive development: a step in the right direction to address domestic disputes and bridge the ethnic divide in Afghan society.

On the other hand, author of this article is naive. What happened in the past, should not be used as the pretext to discourage peaceful settlement of disputes with dissenting/rebellious elements of the society. Conflict is not a solution.

 

[Secret Service]

returned with purpose.

 

[saiyan0321]

This guy did something nobody could do and that was destroy the only city that was worth anything in afghanistan. A city that could be called a fine city and reduced it to a rubble. Kabul never recovered from the brutality of hekmatyar. but now apparently he is the very good taliban. Afghanistan is a war lord society.

 

[EAK]

Good Taliban & Bad Taliban whining only comes in international media when Pakistan is involved..

 

[Tokhme khar]

With its Afghanistan policy in tatters, plan B was to introduce ISIS-Khorasan, but now looks like a plan C?
http://www.atimes.com/article/gulbuddins-second-coming-old-afghan-warhorse-back-fray/
Gulbuddin’s second coming: old Afghan warhorse back in fray
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is a controversial figure, but he could have a key role to play in the future of the country – especially with tacit support from the US and Pakistan
By M.K. Bhadrakumar May 8, 2017 7:27 PM (UTC+8)

Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar prays before giving a speech to supporters in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on April 30. Photo: Reuters
When Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a famous figure on the Afghan jihadist scene in the 1980s, appears in Kabul after an absence of over two decades, it’s big news.

The man, his timing, his controversial past… all have combined to create a wave of excitement and anticipation that an inflection point in the Afghan war is upon us.

The DailyBrief
Must-reads from across Asia - directly to your inbox
Gulbuddin evokes strong feelings of antipathy among many Afghans – especially among the Tajiks and Hazaras who dominate Kabul. However there are equal numbers, in the Pashtun heartlands of the south, who empathise with him.

Gulbuddin certainly isn’t the first figure to emerge out of the fog of a long and brutal war to stake his claim in a post-war scenario. The questions that must be asked therefore relate to the political agenda of his mentors and his capacity to adapt to new realities. Arguably, Afghanistan has entered the post-truth era. This needs some explaining.

For a start, the timing of Gulbuddin’s “return” must be carefully noted. True, Hezb-e Islami has been represented in the Afghan government for the past several years and there is some inevitability about Gulbuddin identifying with the compact, finally. Through all these years, he was ostensibly at odds with the Taliban but some superior force apparently prevailed upon the latter not to wreak vengeance on him. Left to itself, the Taliban could have easily eliminated him – as it assassinated Burhanuddin Rabbani. But it didn’t.

Evidently, it was written in Gulbuddin’s stars that he had a higher destiny. Couldn’t a drone have spotted him in Nangarhar and simply erased him from the face of the earth, with no questions asked? Yes, that was eminently feasible – after all, the US included him in its vaunted list of notorious terrorists in 2003. But the CIA drones have avoided him like the plague. The only logical explanation is that former President Barack Obama was savvy enough to foresee the need for a Plan B in Afghanistan at some point.

A timely ‘second coming’
What could US-Pakistani congruence over Gulbuddin really be about? There is no gainsaying the fact that Gulbuddin goes back a long way both with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and the US’ Central Intelligence Agency. Such Faustian deals have a way of remaining evergreen.

Gulbuddin’s “second coming” is important for both Pakistan and the US at this point in time. Washington fears that regime collapse in Kabul is fast becoming a real possibility and knows a Plan B is necessary if the ugly “Vietnam scenario” of Americans evacuating in haste is not to be repeated. The addition of a “few thousand more” western troops at this point will not change the reality on the ground.

Meanwhile, for Pakistan, the scenario of civil war and total anarchy being loosed is unthinkable because its spill over the Durand Line could be calamitous.

For both Pakistan and the US, the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) brings its own “known unknown” factor. Suffice to say that Washington and Islamabad have a shared interest today in stabilizing the Afghan situation with a view to holding the country back from hurtling down the abyss. The Trump administration may soon be left with no option but to rope in Pakistan as its gendarme for Afghanistan. Both Defence Secretary James Mattis and National Security Advisor HR McMaster are likely to be thinking on these lines.

Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar arrives to give a speech to supporters in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on April 30, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Parwiz
Gulbuddin has a key role to play in this calculus. Three things matter here.

One, there is great complementarity between the (Afghan) Taliban and Hezb-e Islami. Gulbuddin can be instrumental in finessing or “refining” the Taliban to turn it into a ruling-elite-in-waiting. Both Hezb-e and the Taliban are Pashtun-centric. However Hezb-e was traditionally rooted in areas such as Kunar, Laghman, Jalalabad and Paktia – which also happen to be the regions where IS-K has set its sights. Gulbuddin can play a unique role in the marginalization of the IS-K.

Two, Afghanistan’s “Pashtun countryside” is alienated from the Kabul elites, whereas Gulbuddin has an appeal in those southern and eastern regions thanks to the folklore of the “jihad” of the 1980s, which lies embedded in the collective consciousness of the Pashtun “masses”.

Three, amongst all Mujahideen groups, Hezb-e (which has its origins on the campus of Kabul University campus in the early 1970s) has tended to attract the largest cadres of educated Afghans. Much of this is a matter of historical legacy today, but it can be reclaimed as a valuable inheritance. Put differently, Hezb-e brings in “brain power”, which the Taliban abysmally lacks.

A ‘life force’ for Aghanistan
Gulbuddin’s thoughtful remarks last week – both in Jalalabad as he set out for Kabul and in a speech on Friday in Kabul – reflect that his agenda is to harness the Taliban’s “life force,” which Hezb-e lacks today – under his leadership, of course. He called for an Islamic system in Afghanistan, disbandment of the National Unity Government, an end to foreign interference and reconciliation with the Taliban.

For Pakistan, Gulbuddin’s impeccably anti-Indian credentials are likely to endear him. Meanwhile, the US trusts him to keep the Russians at bay. If Plan B were to work, the US would have to do the heavy lifting to ensure India, in league with Russia and Iran, doesn’t present a spoke in the wheels. Pakistan must also make up its mind to let go of the Russian connection.

As for China, the Trump administration sees tremendous potential to take up Beijing’s offer of co-operation to resolve regional conflicts. At any rate, China is a stakeholder in the stabilization of Afghanistan, too. The only dark horse is Iran.

Significantly, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif arrived unannounced in Kabul on Sunday. Interestingly, he had met Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa in a hurried, day-long trip to Islamabad on Wednesday before moving on to Afghanistan.

If Plan B were to work, the US would have to do the heavy lifting to ensure India, in league with Russia and Iran, doesn’t present a spoke in the wheels

His mission appears to have been to convey Iran’s profound disquiet over IS-Khorasan (whom former President Hamid Karzai recently accused of being the progeny of the US) and, secondly, attempts to distinguish between “good or bad terrorists” (read attempts to legitimize the Taliban).

Zarif iterated Tehran’s readiness to support Kabul in standing up to any outside attempts to dominate Afghanistan or dictate the terms of regional politics. Zarif also publicly warned at a press conference in Kabul that whoever is propping up the IS-Khorasan will eventually regret it when the blowback occurs.

Evidently, these are early days. There has been many a slip between the cup and the lip for Gulbuddin. He almost seized power in 1992, but Ahmed Shah Massoud pipped him to the post. When resistance began over Mujahideen excesses, the ISI preferred to rally Taliban instead of asking him to lead the charge of the light brigade.

When the Taliban regime was ousted, Gulbuddin attempted a comeback but the ISI simply mothballed him. This is going to be a final attempt from Gulbuddin to grab power in Kabul. If he doesn’t realize his life’s ambition this time in post-truth Afghanistan, it will be a case of the curtain coming down for the 69-year old warhorse

 

[Sully3]

welcome back old friend.

lets get rid of these RAW dogs together

 

[Fledgingwings]

Taliban are already on their own.the fight is just getting tougher.Gulbadeen is not worth using against taliban now.

 

[GlobalVillageSpace]

The Butcher of Kabul: Life in times of Gulbuddin “Rocketyar”
Global Village Space |

M. K. Bhadrakumar |

Personally speaking, my ‘encounters’ with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have not been pleasant experiences. Their setting was Kabul, and the description of him as the ‘Butcher of Kabul’ still remains in the attic of memory. But I tend to forgive Gulbuddin.

Gulbuddin was a lurking presence, although based in Peshawar. His guerrillas had taken up positions on the mountain tops surrounding the Kabul valley.

The year was 1990 when I was on special assignment as Charge d’Affaires to manage the embassy in Kabul. That period was like a long sunset – full of melancholic hues while witnessing human suffering from impossibly close quarters. The communist regime was on its last legs. The abortive coup attempt by the then Defence Minister Shahnawaz Tanai to depose President Najibullah came as a rude awakening that the ground beneath the feet was shifting. When the coup failed, Tanai took a plane and fled to Pakistan to a warm welcome by Gulbuddin.

Indeed, the quicksands of Afghan politics are treacherous and the Mujahideen, sensing victory, were knocking at the city gates. The Russians had already turned their back on Najib. Despite Najib’s lingering hopes of Indian support, he soon began negotiating with Pakistan for an ‘exit strategy’. The city went under curfew as dusk fell and it became difficult to distinguish the enemy. And the daily curfew defined our lifestyle.

Gulbuddin was a lurking presence, although based in Peshawar. His guerrillas had taken up positions on the mountain tops surrounding the Kabul valley. Our Embassy Residence, where I was quartered, was located close to the airport and often one could hear jets streaming past low, heading toward the mountains, leaving a sonic boom that shook up windows, shattered crockery, and set children crying and the dogs barking. Then, within seconds one would hear the dull thuds as the jets dropped their bombs on positions where Gulbuddin’s men were suspected to be.

Read more: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: “The Butcher of Kabul”

Unforgettable memories
Some stories from childhood never fade away. Tagore’s Kabuliwallah, for instance. I had a Pashtun cook who made terrific kebabs. He had left behind his family in the village and now and then he’d take leave to visit them, leaving me alone. In the sprawling residence of the ambassador, I’d be all by myself with the security guards. Those were times when the mind would begin stealthily exploring the frontiers of reality.

The thuds in the distant mountains reminded me of another sad story I had read in childhood – the story of the Dutch settler in the New World, Rip Van Winkle, who, one autumn day, to escape his wife’s nagging, wandered into the Catskill Mountains with his dog and stumbled upon the hollow which was the place of origin of the thunderous noises he used to hear at times in his village – and saw a group of ornately dressed, silent bearded men playing nine-pins.

One eventually got used to the sound of the rockets falling on the city, but the suspense took a toll.

Van Winkle didn’t ask who they were or how they knew his name, but began drinking some of their Hollands and soon fell asleep. When he awakened, he couldn’t recognize himself. There were shocking changes, his beard was a foot long and the dog was not to be seen. When he returned to the village, he could recognize no one. In place of the portrait of King George III on the inn’s sign hung one of George Washington. Van Winkle later learned that the strange bearded men in the mountains were ghosts of the crew of Henry Hudson, the English sea explorer and navigator of the early 17th century who had vanished a long time ago.

Whenever I heard the distant thuds, I fancied that Gulbuddin’s men must be playing nine-pins. However, they weren’t ghosts. They were indulging in politics by other means. They reacted unfailingly to every bombing mission by Najib’s jets. One fateful Sunday afternoon is still etched in memory.

Read more: Will the butcher of Kabul bring peace to Afghanistan?

Gulbuddin’s attack
Huddled behind sand bags, we counted in the next one hour an incessant rain of 27 rockets, all falling in close proximity. Gulbuddin’s men were apparently targeting the Interior Ministry just across the road, which used to be a prime target of the Mujahideen.

Read full article:
The Butcher of Kabul: Life in times of Gulbuddin “Rocketyar”

 

[TMA]

The Butcher of Kabul: Life in times of Gulbuddin “Rocketyar”
Global Village Space |

M. K. Bhadrakumar |

Personally speaking, my ‘encounters’ with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar have not been pleasant experiences. Their setting was Kabul, and the description of him as the ‘Butcher of Kabul’ still remains in the attic of memory. But I tend to forgive Gulbuddin.

Gulbuddin was a lurking presence, although based in Peshawar. His guerrillas had taken up positions on the mountain tops surrounding the Kabul valley.

The year was 1990 when I was on special assignment as Charge d’Affaires to manage the embassy in Kabul. That period was like a long sunset – full of melancholic hues while witnessing human suffering from impossibly close quarters. The communist regime was on its last legs. The abortive coup attempt by the then Defence Minister Shahnawaz Tanai to depose President Najibullah came as a rude awakening that the ground beneath the feet was shifting. When the coup failed, Tanai took a plane and fled to Pakistan to a warm welcome by Gulbuddin.

Indeed, the quicksands of Afghan politics are treacherous and the Mujahideen, sensing victory, were knocking at the city gates. The Russians had already turned their back on Najib. Despite Najib’s lingering hopes of Indian support, he soon began negotiating with Pakistan for an ‘exit strategy’. The city went under curfew as dusk fell and it became difficult to distinguish the enemy. And the daily curfew defined our lifestyle.

Gulbuddin was a lurking presence, although based in Peshawar. His guerrillas had taken up positions on the mountain tops surrounding the Kabul valley. Our Embassy Residence, where I was quartered, was located close to the airport and often one could hear jets streaming past low, heading toward the mountains, leaving a sonic boom that shook up windows, shattered crockery, and set children crying and the dogs barking. Then, within seconds one would hear the dull thuds as the jets dropped their bombs on positions where Gulbuddin’s men were suspected to be.

Read more: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar: “The Butcher of Kabul”

Unforgettable memories
Some stories from childhood never fade away. Tagore’s Kabuliwallah, for instance. I had a Pashtun cook who made terrific kebabs. He had left behind his family in the village and now and then he’d take leave to visit them, leaving me alone. In the sprawling residence of the ambassador, I’d be all by myself with the security guards. Those were times when the mind would begin stealthily exploring the frontiers of reality.

The thuds in the distant mountains reminded me of another sad story I had read in childhood – the story of the Dutch settler in the New World, Rip Van Winkle, who, one autumn day, to escape his wife’s nagging, wandered into the Catskill Mountains with his dog and stumbled upon the hollow which was the place of origin of the thunderous noises he used to hear at times in his village – and saw a group of ornately dressed, silent bearded men playing nine-pins.

One eventually got used to the sound of the rockets falling on the city, but the suspense took a toll.

Van Winkle didn’t ask who they were or how they knew his name, but began drinking some of their Hollands and soon fell asleep. When he awakened, he couldn’t recognize himself. There were shocking changes, his beard was a foot long and the dog was not to be seen. When he returned to the village, he could recognize no one. In place of the portrait of King George III on the inn’s sign hung one of George Washington. Van Winkle later learned that the strange bearded men in the mountains were ghosts of the crew of Henry Hudson, the English sea explorer and navigator of the early 17th century who had vanished a long time ago.

Whenever I heard the distant thuds, I fancied that Gulbuddin’s men must be playing nine-pins. However, they weren’t ghosts. They were indulging in politics by other means. They reacted unfailingly to every bombing mission by Najib’s jets. One fateful Sunday afternoon is still etched in memory.

Read more: Will the butcher of Kabul bring peace to Afghanistan?

Gulbuddin’s attack
Huddled behind sand bags, we counted in the next one hour an incessant rain of 27 rockets, all falling in close proximity. Gulbuddin’s men were apparently targeting the Interior Ministry just across the road, which used to be a prime target of the Mujahideen.

Read full article:
The Butcher of Kabul: Life in times of Gulbuddin “Rocketyar”

Why is it impossible for an Afghan and a Pushtun to have a visceral hatred towards Hindustan?