Afghanistan - Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

Hekmatyar has been assassinated more times than Monica Lewinsky's character. Dumped by the ISI in favor of the Taliban in 1994, he still plays the part of fiery muj leader. Somehow he always pops up alive on the radio a few days later haranguing his detractors. He was rocketed when he was sworn in as PM at the Kabul Intercontinental (after a live radio interview by a DP fan and journo Haneef) and even as we go to press he was supposedly gunned down on the streets of Mashad, Iran. Hek is the late-40-something "rebel without a pause" from Baghlan who came to prominence as the most favored of the 12 Afghan rebel factions nurtured by the CIA. He is originally from Baghlan and is the head and founder of the Hezbi Islami group. He first studied at the Afghan military academy, then switched to the engineering department of Kabul University in 1968. Some of his friends call him "Engineer Hekmatyar" but he never graduated from Kabul University. Hekmatyar spent four years in the communist PDPA (People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan), which was made up of both Parchami and Khalqi groups. In 1972, Hekmatyar was jailed for killing a Maoist student, but then fled to Peshawar, Pakistan, where he founded Hezbi Islami. In 1974, until 1976, he was trained by the ISI to overthrow President Davd. He has changed alliances and benefited greatly in his position as leader of the Pashtuns until recently when the Taliban became the major Pashtun group. Hekmatyar was once Rabbani's prime minister, but broke away and began a yearlong siege of Kabul. His army was trashed in March 1995 by the Taliban and he is still looking for a sugar daddy. Detractors point out that Hekmatyar spent the Russian war safely in Peshawar stockpiling CIA-supplied weapons and money while Massoud was fighting in the mountains with weapons stolen from dead Russians. His forces were the major beneficiary of weapons from Pakistan and once bragged that he could fight a war for 25 years without ever needing supplies. His arms caches are now in the hands of the Taliban. Be careful before you trash talk about Hekmatyar because he still has a lot of fans in Pakistan; in fact, one of them tried to off the Taliban mullahs while DP was there. Hek, Dostum and Massoud were blamed for the more than 50,000 people who have been killed in Kabul during the factional fighting after the Russians left.

Hezb-e-islami.

http://www.hezb-e-islami.org/