Hekmatyar, Gulbuddin (1949– )

Afghani leader of the Mujahedin (Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas), prime minister 1993–94 and 1996. Strongly anticommunist and leading the Hezb-i-Islami (Islamic Party) faction, he resisted the takeover of Kabul by moderate Mujahedin forces in April 1992 and refused to join the interim administration, continuing to bombard the city until being driven out. In June 1993, under a peace agreement with President Burhanuddin Rabbani, Hekmatyar was re-admitted to the city as prime minister, but his forces renewed their attacks on Kabul during 1994. He was subsequently dismissed from the premiership, but returned to Kabul in June 1996, when he became combined prime minister, defence minister, and finance minister. However, in September he was driven out of Kabul by the Taliban (fundamentalist student army) who had seized control of much of Afghanistan.

Hekmatyar became a Mujahedin in the 1980s, leading the fundamentalist faction of the Hezb-i-Islami, dedicated to the overthrow of the Soviet-backed communist regime in Kabul. He refused to countenance participation in any interim ‘national unity’ government that was to include Afghan communists. Renewed bombardment of Kabul by Hezb-i-Islami forces in 1992 led to his faction being barred from government posts. His fierce fight for Kabul from 1995, with Ahmed Shah Mesood, the defence minister, led to chaos. In March 1998 he returned from exile in Iran and proposed a new peace settlement.