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Warlord
Foe Of Afghan Government Leaves Iran, Karzai Heads To India
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Hekmatyar |
ISLAMABAD,
Feb. 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As Afghan interim leader Hamid
Karzai heads to India, former Afghan warlord Gulbudinn Hekmatyar, who opposes
the interim Kabul government, has left Iran after threats to expel him, the
Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported Wednesday.
Quoting
family members, the Pakistan-based agency said Hekmatyar, a former Pashtun
warlord and ex-Afghan Prime Minister left Iran several days ago.
"Engineer
Hekmatyar is no longer in Iran. He has left Iran," Hekmatyar’s
Pakistan-based son-in-law, Baheer Gherat, told AIP. Gherat did not say where
Hekmatyar had gone, AIP reported.
But
the agency quoted "informed sources" in Pakistan's southwestern
Baluchistan province as saying Hekmatyar had returned to Afghanistan, without
specifying where.
Hekmatyar's
offices in Tehran and the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad were closed at the
request of the Iranian government a few days before a visit to the country by
Karzai, which ended Tuesday.
Hekmatyar,
an opponent of both the former ruling Taliban and the opposition Northern
Alliance, has called Karzai's internationally backed government illegitimate and
has demanded that U.S. forces leave Afghanistan. But he said this month he would
leave Iran if it would help ease Tehran's problems with the United States, which
has accused the republic of meddling to destabilize Karzai's regime.
Hekmatyar,
who heads the Sunni Muslim Hizb-i-Islami party, fought against occupying Soviet
forces in the 1980s but is vilified for reducing much of Kabul to ruins in a
siege of the capital that followed Moscow's pullout.
Hekmatyar,
a former anti-Soviet mujahideen commander, fled to Iran in 1996 when the Taliban
took control of Kabul. An Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman told news agencies
Monday that Hekmatyar would be arrested and tried for war crimes if he returned
home.
Pakistan,
once Hekmatyar's main backer in the fight against the Soviet occupation of
Afghanistan but later allied with his Taliban opponents, is also considered
unlikely to take him back.
Despite
Iranian declarations of support for the interim Afghan administration,
Washington has accused Tehran of sending arms into Afghanistan and allowing
Taliban and Al-Qaeda members to escape across the Iran-Afghan border.
Following
his landmark three-day visit to Tehran, in which the two neighboring countries
pledged not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs and to co-operate to
bring stability to the region, Karzai is due to arrive in the Indian capital,
Delhi, for talks on promoting reconstruction efforts in his country.
It
is Karzai's first visit to India since taking charge in Kabul in December.
Karzai and a number of his senior ministers will meet the Prime Minister, Atal
Behari Vajpayee, and Indian officials and business leaders. Foreign Minister
Abdullah Abdullah and other cabinet ministers among the 30-strong political and
business delegation accompanied Karzai.
The
Indian President KR Narayanan said Delhi was committed to helping Kabul address
its humanitarian and reconstruction needs.
According
to the BBC’s online news service, while Karzai can expect a warm welcome in
Delhi, the Indian government is expected to make it clear that Afghans should
not allow Pakistan to intervene in their internal affairs.
India,
Russia and Iran had backed the opposition Northern Alliance in its fight against
the Taliban regime, which came to power with the help of Pakistan in September
1996.
Since
the Taliban's fall, India's support has been recognized by a series of high
level visits, while New Delhi has opened a diplomatic liaison office in Kabul
and pledged 100 million dollars for reconstruction and development. India has
also sent several medical teams and about 12 tons of emergency medical supplies.
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