VANCOUVER, CANADA — After days of controversy, sources close to Gulbudin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hezb-e-Islami confirmed that the Taliban have evicted him from his residence in Western Kabul.
Mr. Hekmatyar, a notorious warlord who refused to join the post-Taliban political coalition in 2001 spent much of the last two decades as an insurgency leader in hiding. Known for his close ties to the Pakistani intelligence before the Taliban dethroned him in regional proxy politics, Hekmatyar owed much of his infamous reputation to his carnage in Kabul during the civil war in the early 1990s.
The residence from which he was evicted was one of the perks of a peace deal he signed in 2016 with the former government to lay his arms and join a civilian life. According to the agreement, Mr. Hekmatyar received security protection, a residence, and compensation for his fighters from the public purse in addition to the right to compete in democratic politics.
The Taliban, however, after returning to power refused to recognize the agreement Mr. Hekmatyar had signed with the previous government.
Habib Rahman Hekmatyar, Mr. Hekmatyar’s son posted on X on Sunday, March 24, that after months of discussions with the regime in Kabul, Taliban authorities had refused to honour the peace deal. According to him, the residence Mr. Hekmatyar occupied was the only component of the deal still in effect.
“Only this place to live remained from the peace agreement with the previous government.”
The Taliban, however, say the residence was on a disputed property and Mr. Hekmatyar had to relocate to another place. The group’s chief spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid said that Mr. Hekmatyar, whom he called a Jihadi figure, has been moved to a different location with his “dignity and honor” intact.
Mr. Hekmatyar’s son was quick to respond to Taliban’s claim that the property was disputed.
“Sir, there was no dispute there,” Habib Rahman Hekmatyar replied to Mr. Mujahid’s post on X.
“Your action was inherently ugly, shameful, and detestable.”
Abdul Nafi Takor, former spokesman for the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior, said that the new place of residence was chosen based on “an agreement and mutual interest.”
Mr. Takor wrote on X that “Hekmatyar has not gone and will not go to any other country. No one has deprived him of the right to reside in the country, and no one has the right to force him to leave the country.”
Gulbudin Hekmatyar, who despite sharing a common cause of fighting the American-led military coalition in Afghanistan remained at odds with the Taliban since the group’s advent to power in the 1990s, is from the very few senior political leaders from the country’s tumultuous past who reside inside Afghanistan under the Taliban rule.
Former President Hamed Karzai and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah are the only other figures who have remained in the country.
Sources in Kabul say that Mr. Hekmatyar has moved to Wazir Akbar Khan, the affluent neighbourhood in Central Kabul that was the highly securitized “green zone” for foreign embassies before the Taliban came to power.
The junior Hekmatyar did not suffice to respond to allegations by Taliban spokesman but dared to even take on the group’s ultra-conservative leader in Kandhar.
“Only a few old-fashioned and stubborn of you can do anything. I know all your elders agree, except one person who tarnishes all of you and you poor people have to obey.”
“Go and open girls’ schools if you can,” he continued.
