CIA asset Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who for their sake postured a radical view of Islam and anti-Americanism. Hekmatyar received a diploma in engineering from Kabul University in 1968. At this time, he showed no sign of religious fundamentalism, though in 1970, he joined the or Muslim Youth, a faction of the Muslim Brotherhood. Nevertheless, he was also a member of the quasi-Marxist PDPA, until he was accused in 1972 of the murdering a Maoist student. He was found guilty and sent to jail for a period of two years.
Early Life and Education
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was born in 1947 in Imam Sahib district of the Kunduz province, northern Afghanistan, a member of the Kharoti tribe of the Ghilzai Pashtun. His father, Ghulam Qader, who migrated to Kunduz, is originally from the central Ghazni province.
Afghan businessman and Kharoti tribal leader Gholam Serwar Nasher deemed Hekmatyar to be a bright young man and sent him to the Mahtab Qala military academy in 1968, but he was expelled due to his political views two years later. He then attended Kabul University's engineering department starting in 1970. Hekmatyar thus earned the nickname of "Engineer Hekmatyar," a term frequently used by his followers and allies, though he was unable to complete his degree.
He remained active at the University until a 1972 incident in which he was implicated in the killing of a rival member of a Maoist group, and sent to jail for two years. Hekmatyar was then a pro-Soviet militant of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. He was later released when Daoud Khan seized power in 1973. Partly due to studying in the Kabul University, Hekmatyar's communist ideology was affected by Islamic extremism. He joined the underground Muslim Youth group and his radicalism began to surface.
Exile in Pakistan
The arrival of Afghan opposition militants in Peshawar coincided with a period of tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan, due to Daoud's claim to control the entire Pashtunistan, including significant portions of Pakistani territory.
In Pakistan's refugee camps he set up training camps to recruit afghan militants with the help of Naseerullah Babar, then governor of the North-West Frontier Province where the issue of Pashtunistan was in its highest.
The islamist movement had two main tendencies: the Jamiat-i islami ("islamic society") led by Burhanuddin Rabbani, that advocated a gradualist strategy to gain power, through infiltration of society and the state apparatus. The other movement, called Hezb-i islami ("islamic party"), was led by Hekmatyar, who favored a more radical approach, in the shape of an uprising led by a vanguard of islamist intellectuals. Pakistani, Saudi Arabia and other westerns countries support went to Hekmatyar's group, who, in October 1975, undertook to instigate an uprising against the government. Without popular support, the rebellion ended in complete failure, and hundreds of militants were arrested due to stronge ant-insugency tactic of afghan army in Sardar dauods presedency .
The failure of Hekmatyar's attempt led to a formal split between the two tendencies, both of which were allowed to open offices in Peshawar, and led eventually to a polarization of mujahideen politics between gradualists and radicals.[8] Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, to distinguish it from a smaller splinter group, was formed as an elitist avant-garde based on a strictly disciplined Islamist ideology within a homogeneous organization that Olivier Roy described as "Leninist", and employed the rhetoric of the Iranian Revolution. It had its operational base in the Nasir Bagh, Worsak and Shamshatoo refugee camps. In these camps, Hezbi Islami formed a social and political network and operated everything from schools to prisons, with the support of the Pakistani government
During the Daoud coup of 1973, Hekmatyar escaped to Pakistan, and was recruited by Pakistani intelligence. In Pakistan, Hekmatyar then founded the Hezbi Islami, or Party of Islam, even though he had never received a classical Islamic education
Covertly, we supported the Islamic fundamentalist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who received the lion share of the arms and funds provided to the Afghan resistance. He was at the time "America's man". He continued in that position until April 29, 1992 when Commandant Massoud, another Afghan resistance fighter, entered Kabul with 10,000 men. Massoud had been a fierce opponent of the Afghan fundamentalist Hekmatyar, who heretofore had been the favorite of the Pakistani military.1
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is considered a partner of Ayub Afridi's smuggling network.
CIA Connection
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was leading recipient of CIA funding among the Mujahideen groups, and affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, was at the center of the drug trade laundered through BCCI to fund the Mujahideen campaign. According to journalist Tim Weiner, “[Hekmatyar’s] followers first gained attention by throwing acid in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil. CIA and State Department officials I have spoken with call him “scary,” “vicious,” “a fascist,” “definite dictatorship material.” Over time it has emerged that Hekmatyar was not only an ISI asset, who laundered his money through BCCI, but that he also cooperated with the KGB to ensure his status as the most powerful warlord among many rivals. Human rights groups alleged that he was responsible for murdering more Afghans than the Soviet Union killed.
Also See
