Who is trying to eliminate the old fox?
Author: Nurullah Valizade, analyst
The suicide attack on Hekmatyar's office in Kabul came after he recently made a mysterious trip to Pakistan, the purpose and results of which were not revealed to the media.
Hekmatyar is known as the only political leader (leader of a political party) who remained in Kabul after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan and somehow continued his soft and shadowy activities. Although Hekmatyar has an ethnic and ideological connection to the Taliban, it seems that this has earned him not to feel threatened by the Taliban and feel comfortable under their rule, but he is considered the only internal rival of the Taliban.
Prior to the advent of the Taliban, Hekmatyar was considered the undisputed leader of the Pashtuns and had a major claim to the leadership of the country and leadership of the Pashtuns. But the Taliban overthrew Hekmatyar from the throne and forced him to kneel to his old enemy (Jamiat Islami) and seek refuge in Panjshir with Ahmadshah Massoud, who fought with him for many years. It is unlikely that Hekmatyar does not feel the hatred and enmity caused by this great humiliation, and in his heart, he reconciled with the Taliban.
Hekmatyar is still one of the few Pashtun jihad political leaders who have struggled to prove their loyalty to Pakistan. He considers Pakistan his second home, and even when Pakistan decided to overthrow him from power by the Taliban, he did not oppose Pakistan.
In the past year and a half, Hekmatyar has been critical of some of the Taliban's actions, albeit in mild terms, and, so to speak, without taking an executive and practical role in the Taliban government, he somehow kept his distance from this group. It can be said that one of the reasons why the Taliban tolerated the Hekmatiyars is the dictates and orders of Pakistan, in addition to the ethnic issue and commonality of views. This means that the Pakistanis instructed the Taliban to spare Hekmatyar and allow him to continue his political activities in a mild manner.
With the growing dissension between the Taliban and the fact that part of the Taliban is not under the control of Pakistan, and by playing some complex games in collusion with the Americans, they have caused concern in Pakistan. It seems that the Pakistanis are trying to emphasize the role of Hekmatyar, turn him into an internal rival of the Taliban, and want to create leverage against them. Perhaps even more than that, they want to bring Hekmatyar back on stage. Let's not forget that due to the recent emergence of the Taliban, most of the commanders of this group have experience in Hizbi Islami, and they can go back to their roots and challenge the Taliban from within.
At the same time, the passage of time has shown that the Taliban, due to the lack of well-known, strong, and influential leaders in the past year and a half, have not been able to strengthen their internal cohesion and become a force capable of governing and mobilizing all Pashtun forces. Over time, many Pashtuns became angry with the Taliban and questioned the group's ability to govern the country and lead the Pashtuns.
According to the above, it is possible that some kind of agreement between Pakistan and certain circles of the Taliban and Pashtuns was secretly made to work on Hekmatyar and Hizbi Islami as a political movement with historical experience. This naturally causes fear and anxiety in other circles of the Taliban, and this fear and anxiety prompt them to physically eliminate Hekmatyar.
This suspicion is especially strengthened when one considers that Hekmatyar in the last year, criticizing the Taliban, emphasized the need for elections, respect for women's rights, and some other points that contradicted the political thinking of Hezbi Islami and Hekmatyar himself, but at the same time it was welcomed among other Pashtun circles. who consider themselves progressive and secular forces. In other words, Hekmatyar conveyed the message to the Pashtuns dissatisfied with the Taliban that if they agreed with his leadership, he was ready to mix the approaches of the Taliban and the demands of progressive and secular Pashtuns, that as a result, the wolves would be fed and the sheep would be safe!
It should be said that after the re-establishment of the Taliban movement, Hizbi Islami members became active in many areas where they had previously failed to be politically active, and tried to attract youth and communicate with former members of the party, which cannot be done without firm confidence.
Recently, a letter was published in the media stating that the Taliban intelligence agency banned the activities of Hizb ut-Tahrir, Jamiat Islah, and some other political movements, like-minded and associated with the Taliban, which helped them come to power. The fact that this order does not refer to Hizbi Islami helps clarify more aspects of the topic discussed in this article. It is likely that Hizbi Islami has a "letter of confidence" from Pakistan, and this was the reason for removing Hizbi Islami from the list of banned parties!
