"Is it possible for a nation whose 25000 defenseless citizens have been brutally murdered to welcome the murderers of their sons?": Hekmatyar

Additional reporting by Nadeem Shaker, IOL Afghanistan Correspondent

KABUL, December 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Afghan government issued Thursday, December 26, a damning tirade against Afghan Pashtun leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar after the former premier reinforced calls for jihad (holy struggle) against U.S. and foreign military forces in Afghanistan.

"Hekmatyar once again showed his unfaithfulness and cruel face to the people of Afghanistan," claimed the official Bakhter news agency.

Bakhter's comments came after Hekmatyar issued a statement, circulated by his followers in Pakistan Wednesday, December 25, to counter claims that his Hezb-i-Islami party was poised to throw its weight behind the U.S.-installed Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"[Hezb-i-Islami] will never abandon the people and always defend Islam and wage jihad (holy struggle) in collaboration with them to expel the aggressors from their country," Hekmatyar said in a Pashtun-language letter.

"We will never give up jihad until the complete freedom of our country. We do not accept the regime imposed by the enemy. We will not participate in the administration which is itself dependent on others to rule the country."

"Our comrades are those mujahedin [holy warriors] who consider jihad against U.S. troops similar to the one they fought against Soviet Union. They consider this jihad as part of their religious duty."

The Pashtun leader asserted that only an Islamic government elected by the Afghan people would be acceptable to him and his followers.

Hekmatyar's statement came after a high-level delegation of his Hezb-i-Islam led by Qotb el-Dine Hilal, chief of the party office in Afghanistan, visited the capital Kabul and held talks with Karzai, his Defense Minister Mohammad Qassem Fahim, the U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan and the American ambassador in Kabul.

Observers see the statement as an evidence of disputes over jihad and political efforts inside Hekmatyar's party.

The U.S.-led coalition operating in Afghanistan has suspected the hand of Hekmatyar, who recently ordered an anti-U.S. jihad, in a series of rocket attacks on its bases close to the Pakistan border.

He still commands a large following in much of Afghanistan and is considered a major threat to Karzai's weak authority.

The U.S. military said Thursday it had no comment to make on Hekmatyar's statement, a stance echoed by spokesmen of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which patrols Kabul.

Bakhter, meanwhile, urged Afghans to remember Hekmatyar's "crimes" and warned them against supporting a man "whose hands are wet up to the elbows with blood".

Commenting on Hekmatyar's latest statement, IslamOnline’s correspondent in Peshawar Husbanullah Mutawakkel, who read a copy of the Pashtun-language letter, repudiated news claims that Hekmatyar had announced any alliance with Taliban or Al-Qaeda.

He asserted that the letter carried no reference whatsoever to either of the two.

Although the statement was not hand-written and signed by Hekmatyar as his costume, Mutawakkel said the letter is very likely genuine, especially that it was circulated on the borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where Hekmatyar enjoys overwhelming support.

In an open letter, dated October 8, to the President of the U.S. Democratic Party and its members in the U.S. Congress, Hekmatyar criticized the "war-mongering policies of American President George Bush."

He warned that Bush's policies, if not stopped, would "entail irreparable loss and catastrophic consequences for the whole world in general and for the Americans in particular."

Hekmatyar dismissed the "American unjust and illegal aggression against Afghanistan, the ruthless genocide of civilians, blind aerial bombardment of towns, villages, mosques, and imposition of a corrupt and despotic minority with a dark history of war crimes," as the main reasons for the "deep hatred and hostility of Afghans against the Americans" which, he said, has "gradually led to an armed resistance."

He asserted that the Afghan people see the Americans as enemies not only to Taliban and Al-Qaeda but also to "every Afghan mujahid and Muslim."

According to Hekmatyar, American troops in Afghanistan “are out to apprehend, crush and wipe out all those people and forces in Afghanistan which believe in freedom and independence of their country.”

"Afghans must be left to decide their future and solve their problems amongst themselves," he stressed.

Lashing out at Bush and his army generals, Hekmatyar accused them of deceiving the American public into believing that American troops in Afghanistan are being welcomed with "open arms and bouquets of flowers."

"Is it possible for a nation whose 25000 defenseless citizens have been brutally murdered to welcome the murderers of their sons; love the killers of their beloved ones; and receive with flowers those whose hands are red with the innocent blood of their near and dear ones?" Hekmatyar wondered.

In reference to Karzai, Hekmatyar said: "Mr. Bush should realize that only he and those as naïve as himself can believe that such puppets, who were not only imposed by Americans through sheer force but need also constant presence of their masters even for their personal security, are the real rulers of Afghanistan."

Taking up "systematic rocket attacks" on U.S. bases in Afghanistan and routine ambushing of U.S. patrols, he asserted that these attacks, which have intensified in the past three months, are not "organized by Taliban nor by Al-Qaeda but they are revengeful acts carried out by those Afghans who have lost their near and dear ones in the barbaric bombardments by Americans."

"With his threats of war against Iraq, Mr. Bush wants to make the world believe that his war against Afghanistan was a resounding victory which could be repeated elsewhere," wrote Hekmatyar to Democrats in the U.S. Congress.

"If Mr. Bush is really concerned about the future of the Americans, he should have been sincere and straightforward with them, confessing that his real aim of invading Iraq is to occupy the second largest oil reserves of the world," he concluded.