Former mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who also served as prime minister, is one of the most controversial figures, who is remembered for his role in the bloody civil war of the 1990s. He headed the Hizb-e-Islami – one of the Peshawar Seven, which has much influence in the professional class of Afghanistan.
With official confirmation of the return of the “Butcher of Kabul”, several Afghans (this scribe follows on Twitter) took to micro-blogging website with very unwelcoming tweets about Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
Of these is one Ali Maisam Nazary, an Afghan researcher & political analyst, who writes, “#Hekmatyar’s provocative rhetoric has already exacerbated ethnic tensions and like the 90s will cause the fragmentation of the State in #Afg”.
Nazary has pinned to his timeline a tweet from September 8, 2016, with a photo of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a former warlord with Tajik background from the Panjshir valley of northern Afghanistan. The tweet reads, “He gave us a new heart, a new vision & a renewed call for justice in #Afghanistan. RIP Commander #Maasoud.”
This pinned tweet is clearly declaration of Nazary’s Tajik ethnic background and his leaning towards Jamiat-e-Islami’s slain chief. However, Nazary is not the only one unwelcoming Hekmatyar. Such tweets, mostly from people with Hazara, Tajik and Uzbek backgrounds, can be found by searching #Hekmatyar.
However, here is a response to them and that from Sami Yousafzai, the Newsweek, Daily Beast and CBS News’ correspondent in Pakistan/Afghanistan. “Sayaf, Mazari, Masud, Khalili, Mohaqiq, Dostam, Dr. Najib, Fahim were throwing sweet candies in Afghanistan, only Hekmatyar was Shelling bullets,” Afghan journalist with Pashtun ethnic background and raised in Peshawar tweeted. Habib Khan Totakhil, another Kabul-based Pashtun journalist associated with The Wall Street Journal raised similar questions in tweets.
“Hekmatyar is the butcher of Kabul but he isn’t the only butcher. Masood, Mazari, Dostum & other warlords have also butchered innocent Afghans,” he said in one of his tweets. In another tweet, Totakhil writes, “Funny to see warlords & baby warlords criticize Gulbuddin Hekmatyar like they are white doves & #Hekmatyar was the only reason of civil war.” In response to a statement of Sima Samar, head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), Totakhil asks, “Has Sima Samar ever spoken about the atrocities perpetrated by Hezbi Wahdat, the party which she is politically affiliated with?”
Meanwhile, a few days after the return of Hekmatyar, supporters of General Abdul Rashid Dostum held a protest in Farayb province against what they call “govt’s discriminating attitude” against other ethnicities. General Dostum, who was barred from entering the US in April last year, is currently under de facto house arrest because of a criminal case against him and his bodyguards who have been accused of abducting a political rival and torturing and raping him.
A Kabul-based journalist with Hazara background told that a majority of those having gathered in front of Hekmatyar’s Kabul residence in protest were also of non-Pashtun backgrounds. “Though a large number of Pashtuns are on Hekmatyar’s side due his ugly past many of them have soft corner for him due his ethnic background,” the journalists further told this scribe while demanding anonymity.
Of the good things that have happened after his return, Hekmatyar has not only renounced violence and urged the Taliban to lay down arms but has also clarified his position on the status of women. As several Afghan analysts have opined that Hekmatyar may fill the vacancy of real Pashtun leader in Kabul and, thus, turn ethnic Pashtuns from Taliban towards the unity government in Afghan capital (though others reject this notion with counter arguments), his return also seems to have created a huge ethnic divide. This divide may further deepen with battle for power in Kabul among followers of three major warlords, representing three different ethnic communities – the Pashtuns, Tajiks and Uzbeks.
Supporters of Dostum and Massoud are likely to intensify their opposition to any leadership role for Hekmatyar in Kabul.
Naimat Khan is a Karachi-based analyst and investigative journalist. He tweets @NkMalazai