Hekmatyar enters the fray in new video

So  he surfaces. I’ve been wondering when he would chose to enter the fray in a more pronounced manner and start positioning himself.

Has anyone seen the video? I’d like to see it since media reporting seems to indicate that he is criticising al Qaeda and faulting it for the downfall of the Taliban. This is quite interesting.

This is what the Daily Times reported:

Osama is still alive: Hekmatyar

LAHORE: Hezb-e-Islami chief Gulbudin Hekmatyar has said that Osama Bin Laden is still alive, a private TV channel reported on Monday. Speaking in a video message, Hekmatyar said the US would be given “safe exit” if it decided to pull out of Afghanistan. “Al Qaeda’s ‘wrong’ strategy was the reason the Taliban were toppled,” he said. Hekmatyar said that Iran, India and China were supporting the American cause in Afghanistan despite having “problems with each other”. He condemned the suicide attacks in Pakistan and urged “those people who had launched a war against Pakistani security forces” that they should fight against foreign forces.

Another interesting report on his video provides more detail:

KABUL – Former Afghan Prime Minister and founder of the Afghan resistance party Hizb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has offered western forces a ’safe passage’ once the US announces a complete withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan, alongwith NATO.

In a new video aired by a private TV channel, Hekmatyar is also said to have confirmed that Osama Bin Laden is still alive, however he did not say where he believed the Al Qaeda chief was. He also blamed the fall of the Taliban government on Al Qaeda’s misguided ideology and failed strategy, saying he did not agree with ‘murdering ten muslims to kill one of the enemy’ – in reference to indiscriminate terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan that have killed thousands of civilians.

Hekmatyar also added that Iran, India and Israel were supporting the American cause in Afghanistan despite having “problems with each other”. He condemned the suicide attacks in Pakistan and urged “those people who had launched a war against Pakistani security forces” – a thinly veiled reference to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan – that they should fight against foreign forces in Afghanistan instead.

This comes after repeated calls by Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, asking the TTP to join the Afghan Taliban in the fight against the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan instead of ‘murdering fellow muslims’ in Pakistan.

The TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) is lead by Hakimullah Mehsud and is on record for issuing statements against leaders of Kashmiri Mujahideen groups threatening to eliminate their leadership if they did not stop fighting in Kashmir and start attacking Pakistan Army instead. TTP militants also massacred 20 members of Jama’at-ud-Dawa after a Jirga in Mohmand Agency in 2008, and according to Pakistani military and intelligence officials receives arms and funds from Western and Indian intelligence agencies based inside Afghanistan.

Then there was this small snippet outlining his comments in relation to his links to Haqqani:

He further said that his network is spread across Afghanistan, adding he has no link to Haqqani network.

I’m going to try to get hold of the video because I think based on these reports it  is quite significant, especially in view of his last video interview, which if memory serves was with Sky TV.  What these comments reinforce  is that it is wrong to lump all these groups and warlords together and that there are very real divisions between them. Despite the fact the US will probably increase troop numbers, people like Hekmatyar are already thinking forward to what comes after a US withdrawal. I think Hekmatyar is positioning himself for this inevitability. What this further reinforces is that if the US were to withdraw the Taliban wouldn’t just skip back into power in Afghanistan. There would be a repeat of the power struggles seen after the withdrawal of the Soviets. Of course the Taliban is a new player in this, and quite powerful, but figures like Hekmatyar and Haqqani and others shouldn’t be underestimated. Nor should it be assumed they would neccessarily fall behind the Taliban.  Many of them have their own designs for coming to power in a post US Afghanistan.