02 February 2017

News Story: Hekmatyar Expected In Kabul Within Next Three Weeks

By Anisa Shaheed

Amin Karim, head of Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e-Islami’s negotiations delegation on Tuesday said their leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is currently on the battlefields in Afghanistan but is expected to arrive in Kabul in the next couple of weeks.

“Our Mujahid brother is in Jihad strongholds. He is in the country and will come to Kabul,” he said.

According to Karim, the joint committees implementing the peace deal are working on ways to maintain Hekmatyar’s security and on finding him accommodation. This will take between two to three weeks to finalize, he said.

“Hekmatyar is not in Kabul, but Hizb-e-Islami members are in prisons or living as refugees and we hope these technical problems will be solved in the next two to three weeks,” Karim said.

According to him, Hizb-e-Islami submitted a list of names of 2,500 prisoners to be released, but Mohammad Akram Khpalwak, a senior adviser to the president said the list was shortened to 480 names and that more names may be deleted as some could be Taliban members.

Khpalwak said some prisoners will be released as a sign of good will before Hekmatyar arrives in Kabul.

Read the full story at TOLOnews