Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin

Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (Dari: حزب اسلامی گلبدین; abbreviated HIG), also referred to as Hezb-e-Islami or Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), is an Afghan political party and former paramilitary organization, originally founded in 1976 as Hezb-e-Islami and led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In 1979, Mulavi Younas Khalis split with Hekmatyar and established his own group, which became known as Hezb-i Islami Khalis; the remaining part of Hezb-e Islami, still headed by Hekmatyar, became known as Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin. Hezbi Islami seeks to emulate the Muslim Brotherhood and to replace the various tribal factions of Afghanistan with one unified Islamic state. This puts them at odds with the more tribe-oriented Taliban (which is predominantly Pashtun).

During the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin was well-financed by anti-Soviet forces through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). In the mid-1990s, the HIG was "sidelined from Afghan politics" by the rise of the Taliban. In the post-2001 war in Afghanistan, HIG "reemerged as an aggressive militant group, claiming responsibility for many bloody attacks against Coalition forces and the administration of President Hamid Karzai". Its fighting strength was "sometimes estimated to number in the thousands". The group signed a peace deal with the Ghani administration in 2016.

Following the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, on 17 August 2021, Hekmatyar met with both Karzai, former President of Afghanistan, and Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation and former Chief Executive, in Doha seeking to form a government (though it was unclear whether either Karzai or Abdullah would be directly involved in any such government). President Ashraf Ghani, having fled the country to either Tajikistan or Uzbekistan, emerged in the UAE and said that he supported such negotiations and was in talks to return to Afghanistan.

The original Hezb-e-Islami was founded in June 1976 by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

In 1979, Mulavi Younas Khalis made a split with Hekmatyar and established his own group, which became known as the Khalis faction, with its power base in Nangarhar. The remaining part of Hezb-e Islami, still headed by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was since then also known as 'Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin' or HIG.

During the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989), Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin was well-financed by anti-Soviet forces, through the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin has also established contacts with the British intelligence services MI6, which provide it with military training, equipment and “propaganda” support, and its leader, Hekmatyar, met with Margaret Thatcher at Downing Street in 1986.

Since 1981 or 1985, Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin formed a part of the Peshawar Seven alliance of Sunni Mujaheddin forces fighting the Soviet invasion.

From 1979 to 1981 the group was considered the most important resistance faction of the Peshawar groups. Because of Hekmatyar's character, the group's influence waned and its image tarnished by 1983 to other Afghan mujahideen.