Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghanistan’s wily warlord-turned-politician, has warned India against giving refuge to those aligned with the toppled Afghan establishment. In an exclusive written interview to CNN-News18, he said the Taliban would respond by doing likewise, as the man nicknamed the ‘Butcher of Kabul’ positions himself as a power player under Taliban rule.
“If their (Indian) apprehensions arise from the refuge they’ve given to the opposition then they should simply refrain from giving such refuge,” he wrote in reply to questions emailed to him. “India, by providing political asylum to the opposition of the incoming Afghan government and by giving them a platform to conduct activities against the government, would be forcing the Taliban to act in kind.”
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Hekmatyar, 72, was pardoned by the then president Ashraf Ghani in 2017. Hekmatyar and his forces from the Pakistan-backed Hezb-e-Islami guerrilla group, are accused for killing thousands of civilians during the siege of Kabul between 1992 and 1996. Hekmatyar was also the prime minister of Afghanistan twice—both short-lived tenures of about a year each from June 1993 and June 1996.
Along with his warning to India about political asylum to elements of the old regime, Hekmatyar also echoed the Taliban position on Kashmir—that Afghanistan and its new rulers have no interest in meddling in the Kashmir issue. He even suggested that it would be easier to use Afghan soil against Pakistan than against India.
“I would also like to emphasize that Afghanistan’s soil can be used against its neighbors more effec-tively then it can be against other non-neighboring nations. India should not have such apprehensions,” he said.
When asked about India’s concerns around Taliban regime, Hekmatyar said, “India should reconsider its failed policies regarding Afghanistan and make up for its historical blunders of supporting groups affiliated with the two occupiers (the Soviet Union and the United States of America).”
Hekmatyar is a survivor in Afghan politics. During the Cold War era, he was part of the Mujahideens who were trained by the US to fight the Soviet Union. Since then he has been both a friend and foe of the Taliban over the last three decades. For his open support to Al-Qaeda, he was sanctioned by the US as a ‘specially designated global terrorist’ after 9/11. When America launched a war in Afghanistan, Hekmatyar took a refuge in Pakistan with the blessings of his patrons in the ISI. In 2017, the leader of Hezb-e-Islami returned to Kabul after striking a deal with Ashraf Ghani government. Hekmatyar contested the 2019 presidential election in which Ghani defeated him.
He is currently participating in discussions with Taliban leaders, Hamid Karzai and other key players to form a new government in Kabul. His deep links with Pakistan Army and ISI make him a unique power broker in today’s Afghanistan.
When asked about the role he would want India to play in new Afghanistan, he said: “I would like to see India play a positive and constructive role in Afghanistan, contrary to their role in the past four decades. It chose to support the invasion and occupation of both the Soviet Union and the United States of America instead of supporting the Afghan cause for freedom. It should also refrain from supporting puppet regimes of foreign occupiers.”
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