After some 20 years of living
in hiding, former Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has made his first
public appearance, urging the Taliban militant group to lay down arms
and join a "peace caravan" in the war-torn country.
The
69-year-old leader of the Hezb-i-Islami militant group made the remarks
in a gathering organized by provincial officials in the country's
eastern province of Laghman, east of the capital Kabul, on Saturday.
"I
invite you [Taliban] to join the peace caravan and stop the pointless,
meaningless and unholy war," he said at the gathering, which was mostly
composed of his supporters. "I want a free, proud, independent and
Islamic Afghanistan."
A number of government officials were also in attendance at the gathering, which was widely broadcast in Afghanistan.
Hekmatyar,
a former anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s who waged a guerrilla war
against the Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan, stands accused of
leading the militancy that allegedly killed thousands of people, mostly
civilians, in Kabul, during the 1992-1996 civil war.
In the wake
of Taliban’s reign of terror in 2001, Hekmatyar was designated a “global
terrorist” by the US for his alleged links to the al-Qaeda and Taliban
militant groups and was hence forced to go into hiding.
Back in
September last year, however, following months of negotiations between
Kabul and Hekmatyar, the two sides etched a landmark peace deal, which
gave him and his followers immunity for past actions and granted them
full political rights. The deal, however, sparked revulsion from human
rights groups, arguing that it was too lenient toward the warlord and
many of his militants. Read more:
Supporters
of Afghan warlord and ex-prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar listen as
he addresses a rally in Laghman Province, Afghanistan, on April 29,
2017. (Photo by AFP)In February, upon Kabul's
request, the United Nations Security Council lifted sanctions against
Hekmatyar, saying "assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in
… Resolution 2253 (2015)” no longer applied to him. It also removed his
name from its Daesh-linked group list.Read more:
“Come
for God’s sake, come and give up fighting which the victims of this war
are Afghans. Let's join hands to end war and bring peace in
Afghanistan,” Hekmatyar addressed Taliban.
In a statement released
shortly after Hekmatyar's public appearance, Afghan President Ashraf
Ghani hailed the move, saying the former strongman would cooperate with
Kabul.
"Hezb-i-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's return will
have remarkable effects on peace, stability, prosperity and development
in all aspects," Ghani said.
Afghanistan has been gripped by
insecurity since the United States and its allies invaded the country as
part of Washington’s so-called war on terror in 2001. Many parts of the
Asian state remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of foreign
troops.
During the past 15 years, the Taliban militants have been
conducting terrorist attacks across the country, killing and displacing
civilians.
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