Gulbaddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan politician and field commander who began his activities in the seventies of the twentieth century. The Islamic Party of Afghanistan created by him was one of the main movements around which the Mujahideen who fought against the USSR were concentrated. The subject is distinguished by extreme cruelty and intolerance, for his “exploits” during the civil clashes in Afghanistan in the nineties, he received a “talking” nickname: Gulbeddin - The Bloody Butcher. Hekmatyar over the years has become more inclined to compromise. The peace agreement with the Afghan authorities, signed recently, has caused great resonance.
Rebel
Gulbeddin Hekmatyar, whose biography will be described below, was born in 1947 in the village of Wartapur, Kunduz province, in the north of the country. At first, he was a rather diligent young man, he successfully studied at the Imamsahib Lyceum, after which he entered the Faculty of Engineering at Kabul University. The passion for knowledge was no longer enough, and Gulbeddin felt the heat of the platform in himself, carried away by political activity.
He left his studies and devoted himself completely to the struggle for justice. While still at university, he became the leader of the organization "Muslim Youth", participated in open speeches against the royal power and the aristocracy. The logical result of the activities of Gulbeddin Hekmatyar was his imprisonment.
After the anti-monarchist coup of Mohammed Daoud, the young politician fled to Pakistan, while fleeing persecution for his suspicion of the murder of Sohandal, a member of the Shoal-e Javid movement.
Creating IPA
Gulbeddin Hekmatyar came from the Pashtuns and adhered to extremely nationalist positions. Witnesses recall his statement that he was primarily a Pashtun, and then a Muslim. According to unverified data, in his youth he adhered to communist views, but his worldview was extremely radicalized after Mohammed Daoud came to power. The latter conducted real repressions against the Muslim clergy of Afghanistan, against which Hekmatyar sharply opposed.
It was impossible to stay in the country, and the Pashtun decided to continue the fight against Daoud in Pakistan. Here, Pakistani intelligence services, who sought to strengthen their influence in the neighboring country, provided him with feasible support.
On the basis of the extremist group “Muslim Brotherhood”, as well as a kind of Komsomol movement “Muslim Youth”, the dissident created his own political party - Hezb e-Islomi, better known as the Islamic Party of Afghanistan.
In 1975, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was one of the leaders of the armed uprising against Daud in Pandscher, but the rebellion choked, and the revolutionary retreated to Pakistan. Disappointed with the defeat, he temporarily abandoned the struggle, but in 1979 he was again elected Emir of Hezb e-Islomi.
Mujahideen
With the advent of the OKSV on the Afghan front stage, or simply the Limited contingent of Soviet troops, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar had a new, clear goal in life. His IPA became the core of one of the largest groups of Mujahideen fighting against the Soviet troops. According to the "hero" himself, the number of his party totaled about 100,000 people. These data are doubtful, however, the number of armed units of Hekmatyar during the fighting was high and was close to forty thousand.
Objectively speaking, the leaders of Hezb e-Islomi were distinguished by outstanding personal qualities: independence, personal courage, and a tough party leadership style. This contributed to the growth of the authority of the politician and military leader among ordinary dushmans, but the personal ambitions of their leader often became an obstacle to the unification of the forces of the anti-Soviet coalition. Due to Hekmatyar’s friction, plans to create an Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan, the Mujahideen Union and other humanitarian philanthropic organizations were frustrated with leaders of other groups.
Split IPA
As often happens, the leader’s desire for unlimited power led to a split within the party. Dissatisfied with the ambitions of Hekmatyar, one of the authoritative figures in the IPA, Burhanuddin Rabbani, takes his supporters away and creates his own movement - “Jamiyat e-Islomi”.
This split was not the last, in 1979, Maulawi Yunus Khales violently quarreled with Gulbeddin and left the IPA. In order to annoy the former ally more strongly, he organized his own movement with exactly the same name - IPA.
We should not forget about the numerous interethnic disputes, the relevance of which was unchanged for a multinational country.
Hekmatyar's strategy
The military detachments of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were numerous and operated in many parts of Afghanistan. IPA eagles were most active in the Kabul province, Badakhshan, Nuristan, Kunduz.
Gulbeddin Hekmatyar himself, as a military leader, was distinguished by a pragmatic approach to questions about methods of warfare. He preferred to avoid open combat clashes with Soviet and government forces that were superior in heavy military equipment.
The authoritative Mujahideen perfectly arranged the military intelligence service, thereby he was well aware of the state of affairs within the detachments of government forces, as well as groups of sworn friends in the Mujahideen coalition. Gulbeddin Hekmatyar at a high level organized subversive activities against the enemy, actively bribing, luring individual troops to his side. The sudden attacks on government troops with the active support of a kind of fifth column in the rear became the hallmark of a successful strategist.
Power battle
After the departure of Soviet troops, the Afghan government did not last long and soon fell under the blows of the Mujahideen. However, after a military victory over the enemy, the main problem for the former allies was to divide power among themselves.
Old residents of Kabul with horror recall the beginning of the nineties, when competing field commanders staged a real war for control of the city, and did not particularly worry about the safety of the city itself and its inhabitants. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar took an active part in those events, having snatched the position of prime minister in the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani from the hands of competitors.
Nickname story
Happiness was short-lived, he soon lost power. However, the leader of the IPA was not like that to give in to difficulties. Without thinking twice, he agreed on a coalition with the many-sided Rashid Dostum, with whom he went on an assault on Kabul in order to repel him from the Pansher lion Ahmad Shah Masoud. Apparently, in order to win the sympathy of voters, the politician did not hesitate to use such radical methods as shelling the capital of Afghanistan.
More than 4 thousand civilians were killed, and all intact buildings in Kabul were finally destroyed. It is not surprising that after this, many Afghans called him nothing more than Gulbeddin the Butcher Hekmatyar.
Armistice Pact
In the mid-nineties, Pakistan made a bet in its political game on the Taliban, finally becoming disillusioned with the intractable leader of the IPA. Tom had to flee the country, and he settled in Iran. After the American invasion of Afghanistan and the overthrow of the Taliban, he began to loudly support al-Qaida and his former Taliban enemies, which led to his deportation from Iran.
Nevertheless, many supporters of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose photo hung next to the portraits of Mullah Omar and Bin Laden, were not so intransigent and compromised by agreeing to participate in the coalition government of Hamid Karzai.
Until recently, the head of the IPA did not recognize any opportunity for negotiations with the authorities of Afghanistan, calling the Kabul rulers puppets in the hands of America. However, the old man was apparently tormented by nostalgia for his native land, and in 2016, the world learned that the Afghan government had signed a peace agreement with Gulbeddin.
He and his comrades-in-arms were promised a complete amnesty, unfreezing accounts blocked by the UN, removing obstacles to travel around the world. In return, the Kabul Butcher promised to recognize the republic’s constitution and lay down its arms. Moreover, no one even knows if Gulbeddin Hekmatyar is alive or not, who carefully hides his location.