Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan (; abbreviated HIA) is an Afghan political party and former paramilitary organization. It was founded in 1976 by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The party currently operates in exile since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
Predominantly Pashtun, the Hizb-i Islami seeks to emulate the Muslim Brotherhood and to replace the various tribal factions of Afghanistan with one unified Islamic state. This puts them at odds with the more tribalist Taliban (which is also mostly Pashtun).Seth Jones, "The Rise of Afghanistan's Insurgency: State Failure and Jihad", International Security, vol 32, no. 4 (2008) pages 28–29
In 1979, Mulavi Younas Khalis split with Hekmatyar and established his own splinter faction. During the Soviet War in Afghanistan (1979–1989), Hizb-i Islami was well-financed by anti-Soviet forces through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). In the mid-1990s, the HIA was "sidelined from Afghan politics" by the rise of the Taliban. In the post-2001 war in Afghanistan, HIA"reemerged as an aggressive militant group, claiming responsibility for many bloody attacks against Coalition forces and the administration of President Hamid Karzai". Its fighting strength was "sometimes estimated to number in the thousands". The group signed a peace deal with the Ghani administration in 2016.
Following the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, on 17 August 2021, Hekmatyar met with both Karzai, former President of Afghanistan, and Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and former Chief Executive, in Doha seeking to form a government (though it was unclear whether either Karzai or Abdullah would be directly involved in any such government). President Ashraf Ghani, having fled the country to either Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, emerged in the UAE and said that he supported such negotiations and was in talks to return to Afghanistan. Since Hekmatyar fled into exile, he has been highly critical of the Taliban's rule.
History
Background: split-up Hizb-e-Islami The original Hizb-e-Islami was founded in June 1976 by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. It grew out of the Muslim Youth organization, an Islamist organization founded in Kabul by students and teachers at Kabul University in 1969 to combat communism in Afghanistan. Its membership was drawn from ethnic Pashtuns, and its ideology from the Muslim Brotherhood and Abu al-A'la Mawdudi's Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan (JIP). Another source describes it as having splintered away from Burhanuddin Rabbani's Islamist party, Jamiat-i Islami, in 1976, after Hekmatyar found that group too moderate and willing to compromise with others.
In 1979, Mulavi Younas Khalis made a split with Hekmatyar and established his own group, which became known as the Khalis faction, with its power base in Nangarhar.
War against the Soviets and Kabul administrations During the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), Hizb-e Islami Gulbuddin was well-financed by anti-Soviet forces, through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Hizb-e Islami Gulbuddin has also established contacts with the British intelligence services MI6, which provide it with military training, equipment and “propaganda” support, and its leader, Hekmatyar, met with Margaret Thatcher at Downing Street in 1986.
Since 1981 or 1985, Hizb-e Islami Gulbuddin formed a part of the Peshawar Seven alliance of Sunni Mujaheddin forces fighting the Soviet invasion.
From 1979 to 1981 the group was considered the most important resistance faction of the Peshawar groups. Because of Hekmatyar's character, the group's influence waned and its image tarnished by 1983 to other Afghan mujahideen.
Hekmatyar and his party operated near the Pakistani border against Soviet Communists. Areas such as Kunar, Laghman, Jalalabad, and Paktia were Hizb-e Islami's strongholds. The party is highly centralized under Hekmatyar's command and until 1994 had close relations with Pakistan.
Despite its ample funding, it has been described as having
Civil war (1992–2001)
In April 1992, Hizbi Islami (HIA) was involved in the outbreak of civil war in Afghanistan.
The bombardment of the capital Kabul by Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) in 1994 is reported to have "resulted in the deaths of more than 25,000 civilians." Frustrated by that continued destructive warlord feuding in Afghanistan, the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) abandoned HIA for the Taliban in 1994.
After HIA was expelled from Kabul by the Taliban in September 1996, many of its local commanders joined the Taliban, "both out of ideological sympathy and for reason of tribal solidarity."The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism, Olivier Roy, Antoine Sfeir, editors, (2007), p.133
After 2001 The Columbia World Dictionary of Islamism reports that, having lost Saudi support when it endorsed Saddam Hussein in 1990 and lost Pakistani support after 1994, "the remainder of Hizb-i Islami merged into al-Qaeda and the Taliban." The Jamestown Foundation describes it having been "sidelined from Afghan politics" for a decade or so after the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Hekmatyar opposed the 2001 American intervention in Afghanistan, and since then has aligned his group (Hizb-e-Islami) with remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda against the current Afghan government.Trojan Horse or Genuine Schism? The Hezb-e-islami Split, David C. Isby, June 2, 2004
Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin was not the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations from 2001 to 2006."2001 Report on Foreign Terrorist Organizations", "Fact Sheet: Foreign Terrorist Organizations List" October 23, 2002, "Fact Sheet: Foreign Terrorist Organizations List" January 30, 2003, "Fact Sheet: Foreign Terrorist Organization Designations Table" December 30, 2004, "Fact Sheet:Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)" October 11, 2005, "Country Reports on Terrorism: Chapter 8 -- Foreign Terrorist Organizations" April 28, 2006 However, it was on the additional 2007 list called "Groups of Concern"."U.S. Designates Foreign Terrorist Organizations: List includes 42 groups, 43 others deemed “of concern”" April 30, 2007
Radio Free Europe reports that "in 2006, Hekmatyar appeared in a video aired on the Arabic language Al-Jazeera television station and declared he wanted his forces to fight alongside Al-Qaeda."Afghanistan: Skeptics Urge Caution Over Purported Hekmatyar Cease-Fire July 19, 2007 According to Le Monde newspaper, as of 2007, the group was active around Mazari Sharif and Jalalabad. HIA took credit for a 2008 attack on a military parade that nearly killed Karzai, an August 2008 ambush near Kabul that left ten French soldiers dead, and an October 3, 2009 attack by 150 insurgents that overwhelmed a remote outpost in Nuristan Province, killing eight American soldiers and wounding 24.
There have also been reports of clashes between members of the HIA and Taliban, and defection of HIA members to the Afghan government. Ten members of the group's "senior leadership" met in May 2004 with President Hamid Karzai and "publicly announced their rejection of Hizb-e-Islami's alliance with al-Qaeda and the Taliban." Prior to Afghanistan's 2004 elections, 150 members of the Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin party were said to have defected to Hamid Karzai's administration. Jamestown Foundation reported in 2004 that, according to Deputy Speaker of Parliament Sardar Rahmanoglu, HIA members "occupy around 30 to 40 percent of government offices, from cabinet ministers to provisional and other government posts." According to journalist Michael Crowley, as of 2010, HIG's political arm holds 19 of 246 seats in the Afghan parliament and "claims not to take cues from Hekmatyar, though few believe it."Our Man in Kabul?, Michael Crowley, The New Republic, March 9, 2010
, the International Security Assistance Force estimated that the military component of Hizbi Islam was about 1,000 strong, including part-time fighters.
, the non-violent faction of the Hizbi Islami was a registered political party in Afghanistan led by Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal.
In early March 2010, elements of the Taliban and the HIA were reportedly fighting in Baghlan province. Scores of Hizb-e-Islami militants, including 11 commanders and 68 fighters, defected on Sunday [7 March 2010] and joined the Afghan government as a clash between the group and the Taliban left 79 people dead, police said."Hizb-e-Islami militants fight Taliban, defect to Afghan govt", Daily Times, 8 March 2010.
Peace negotiations 2010–2016 On the celebration of Nowruz, New Year's Day, of 1389 (March 21, 2010, Western calendar) Harun Zarghun, chief spokesman for Hizb-i-Islami, said that a five-member delegation was in Kabul to meet with government officials and that there were also plans to meet with Taliban leaders somewhere in Afghanistan. Khalid Farooqi, a member of the parliament from Paktika province, confirmed that two delegations from Hizb-i-Islami had shown up. Zarghun, the group's spokesman in Pakistan, said that the delegation had a 15-point plan that called for the retreat of foreign forces in July 2010 – a full year ahead of President Barack Obama's intended withdrawal. The plan also called for the replacement of the current Afghan parliament in December 2010 by an interim government, or shura, which then would hold local and national elections within a year. Zarghun said that a new Afghan constitution would be written, merging the current version with ones used earlier."Militant group in Kabul with draft peace deal"
The same day, Afghanistan's vice-president Mohammad Qasim Fahim reached out to militants at the Nowruz New Year celebrations in Mazar-i-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan. He declared that, with their input, a coming national conference would lay the foundations for peace. He called on resistance forces to participate in a jirga, or assembly, planned for late April or early May.
In late January 2012, America's special envoy to the region Marc Grossman talked peace and reconciliation with Hamid Karzai in Kabul, though the Afghan president made it clear that Afghans should be in the driver's seat; hours before the meeting, Karzai said he personally held peace talks recently with the insurgent faction Hizb-i-Islami, appearing to assert his own role in a U.S.-led bid for negotiations to end the country's decade-long war.
On 18 September 2012, Hizbi Islami claimed responsibility of a suicide attack in Kabul, carried out by an 18-year-old woman in which nine people were killed. They said it was in retaliation for the film Innocence of Muslims.Suicide attack in Afghan capital claimed by Hezb-e-Islami
On 16 May 2013, Hizbi Islami claimed responsibility for another attack in Kabul in the form of an explosive-loaded Toyota Corolla that was rammed into a pair of American military vehicles in which 16 people were killed.
In July 2015, Afghan media outlets reported that Hekmatyar had called on followers of Hizb-e Islami to support the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the fight against the Taliban. Reuters quoted a spokesman for Hizb-i-Islami as denying this, and calling the earlier reports a fake.
2010 Badakhshan massacre In August 2010, Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin was possibly responsible for the 2010 Badakhshan massacre."Hezb-e-Islami killed 2 Afghans and 8 foreigners" "HIA claims killing medics"
Alleged ties to North Korea Although a rocket attack reported to have happened in 2007, killing all on board and destroying the vehicle, fit the characteristics of the mentioned North Korean rocket, the report remains unverified. No such Dr. Amin has surfaced of late.
2016 peace deal