Afghan authorities have banned former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, founder of the Islamic Party of Afghanistan, from leaving the country, the Tolo news portal reported, citing a statement by the politician's son.
Habib Ur-Rahman Hekmatyar announced the decision of the Afghan authorities in a post on social media X. According to him, “the Taliban have banned my father from leaving Afghanistan. They are afraid of my father's meetings with people, considering them dangerous," said the politician's son.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a prominent Afghan political and military figure, was the Prime Minister of Afghanistan in 1993-1994 and 1996. He founded the Islamic Party of Afghanistan (IPA), which is part of the Alliance of seven counter-revolutionary groups fighting against the regime of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan and the Soviet military contingent. In 2003, Hekmatyar was designated a terrorist by the United States and blacklisted by the United Nations, but was amnestied in 2017.
During the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the presidency of Hamid Karzai, he initially fought alongside the Taliban against the pro-American regime, but later abandoned the armed struggle and returned to Kabul.
During the Soviet era, Hekmatyar enjoyed special American protection as the leader of the Afghan Mujahideen. Over the course of the nine-year war, the U.S. government, through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), spent over $600 million supporting his insurgency.