NIGHT LETTERS CHRIS SANDS with FAZELMINALLAH QAZIZAI Night Letters Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Afghan Islamists Who Changed the World HURST & COMPANY, LONDON First published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 41 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3PL © Chris Sands & Fazelminallah Qazizai, 2019 All rights reserved. The right of Chris Sands and Fazelminallah Qazizai to be identified as the authors of this publication is asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. A Cataloguing-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 9781787381964 www.hurstpublishers.com For Mumtaz, Hanzala and Najwa, Afghanistan’s future. vii AUTHORS’ NOTE Most of the information in this book is drawn from more than 300 interviews carried out across Afghanistan and Pakistan between 2013 and 2019. It also draws on interviews from before that time, as well as English, Pashto, Dari and Arabic source material. We made every effort to speak to all the main characters in Hizb-e Islami’s history. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar became aware of the project soon after its inception. Although he never agreed to a sit-down interview, to our knowledge he made no effort to stop other Hizbis cooperating with us. He also answered questions we put to him in writing. ix CONTENTS Authors’ Note vii Map 1: Afghanistan xi Map 2: Kabul xii List of Illustrations xiii Principal Characters xv Prologue: The Return 1 PART ONE MONARCHY AND REPUBLIC 1965–1978 1. Earthquakes 13 2. A New World 33 3. ‘The Ancient Enemy’ 47 4. The Insurrection 71 5. Spies 91 PART TWO JIHAD 1978–1991 6. The Revolution 115 7. Devils 127 8. Professions of Faith 143 9. Culture Wars 161 10. ‘The West is Afraid’ 175 11. Black Tulips 193 12. The Mother Party 215 13. Baghdad 239 14. Exit Wounds 257 15. ‘The Century of Islam’ 271 x CONTENTS PART THREE CIVIL WAR 1991–1996 16. The Fall 289 17. The Islamic State 305 18. ‘Victory or Martyrdom’ 321 19. Collusion 341 20. The Great Game 363 PART FOUR THE TALIBAN 1996–2001 21. The Next War 379 PART FIVE THE AMERICANS 2001–2017 22. The Guests 401 23. The Reckoning 417 Notes 435 Acknowledgements 475 Further Reading 477 Index 479 Map 1: Afghanistan © S.Ballard (2019) Kabul University Deh Mazang Presidential palace Kart-e Char N Pul-e Khishti Kabul airport Kabul Polytechnic Kart-e Parwan Khair Khana Russian Embassy Chihil Sutun Kart-e Se Old City To Paghman district To Chahar Asyab To Pul-e Charkhi prison km 0 2 United States Embassy K a b u l R i v e r Map 2: Kabul xiii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: Senior members of Hizb-e Islami. Photo courtesy of Haji Abubakr. Fig. 2: Sulaiman Layeq. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 3: Sulaiman Layeq. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 4: Sulaiman Layeq. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 5: Funeral of the Pashtun nationalist leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 6: Afghan communist officials meeting with PLO emissary Abu Khalid. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 7: Shahnawaz Tanai pins a medal on another senior communist official. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 8: Communist demonstrators mark International Workers’ Day. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 9: Babrak Karmal and Noor Mohammed Taraki escorting the body of Mir Akbar Khyber for burial. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 10: Mir Akbar Khyber is laid to rest. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 11: Thousands of mourners trail the funeral cortege of Mir Akbar Khyber. Photo courtesy of Sulaiman Layeq. Fig. 12: The Hizb commander General Muzaferuddin in Al’a Jirga. Photo courtesy of General Muzaferuddin. Fig. 13: General Muzaferuddin with his mujahideen in the Maruf district of Kandahar. Photo courtesy of General Muzaferuddin. xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 14: General Muzaferuddin’s mujahideen in Al’a Jirga. Photo courtesy of General Muzaferuddin. Fig. 15: Hizb fighters under the command of General Muzaferuddin parade through Al’a Jirga. Photo courtesy of General Muzaferuddin. Fig. 16: Fazel Haq Mujahid. Photo courtesy of Ijaz-ul-Haq Mujahid. Fig. 17: Fazel Haq Mujahid. Photo courtesy of Ijaz-ul-Haq Mujahid. Fig. 18: Toran Amanullah and Fazel Haq Mujahid at Toran Amanullah’s base. Photo courtesy of Ijaz-ul-Haq Mujahid. Fig. 19: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar at Hizb’s base in Spin-e Shiga. Photo courtesy of Sayed Rahman Wahidyar. Fig. 20: Hekmatyar speaks over a military radio during the 1992–1996 civil war. Photo courtesy of Ijaz-ul-Haq Mujahid. Fig. 21: Hekmatyar delivers a speech in Jalalabad during the civil war. Photo courtesy of Ijaz-ul-Haq Mujahid. Fig. 22: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar andYunis Khalis meet in Jalalabad after the fall of the city. Photo courtesy of Ijaz-ul-Haq Mujahid. Fig. 23: Sayed Rahman Wahidyar, commander of Hizb’s Fatah division. Photo courtesy of Sayed Rahman Wahidyar. Fig. 24: Haji Abubakr, commander of the Army of Sacrifice. Photo courtesy of Sayed Rahman Wahidyar. Fig. 25: Sayed Rahman Wahidyar moves from Spin-e Shiga to Logar to support the Army of Sacrifice. Photo courtesy of Sayed Rahman Wahidyar. Fig. 26: Members of the Army of Sacrifice gather at their main base. Photo courtesy of Haji Abubakr. Fig. 27: Ustad Abdul Saboor Farid in Kabul after being sworn in as prime minister in 1992. Photo courtesy of Ijaz-ul-Haq Mujahid. Fig. 28: Hizbis prepare to capture part of Logar and move towards Kabul. Photo courtesy of Haji Abubakr. xv PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS Abdul Rahim Niazi — An Islamic law student at Kabul University and the Muslim Youth’s first leader. Ahmad Shah Massoud — Hekmatyar’s principal rival. The most prominent commander in the mujahideen party Jamiat-e Islami and leader of the Northern Alliance. Burhanuddin Rabbani — Head of Jamiat-e Islami and Massoud’s political leader. President of Afghanistan during the 1992–1996 civil war. Engineer Habib-ur-Rahman — The Muslim Youth’s strategist and the architect of its move from political activism to armed struggle. Engineer Tareq — A Hizb commander who repeatedly clashed with Massoud’s forces during the Soviet occupation. Faqir Mohammed Faqir — A central figure in the 1978 communist coup and subsequent crackdown on Hizb. Fazel Haq Mujahid — A Hizb commander with close ties to Osama bin Laden. General Muzaferuddin — A former communist soldier who defected to Hizb and became one of the party’s most important commanders. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar — Co-founder of the Muslim Youth and leader of Hizb-e Islami for most of the party’s existence. Haji Abubakr — Commander of Hizb’s Army of Sacrifice. xvi PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS Haji Islamuddin — Hekmatyar’s chief bodyguard and a key link between Hizb and Al-Qaeda. Jalaluddin Haqqani — Led the first Hizb military operation after the 1978 communist coup. Later left the party and became a famous commander in his own right. Jan Baz Sarfaraz — Hizb’s international envoy during the jihad against the Soviets and its liaison officer with Arab fighters. Jan Mohammed — A prominent MuslimYouth activist whose death lay at the heart of the feud between Hekmatyar and Massoud. Kashmir Khan — Hizb’s most revered military commander in the wars against the Soviets and the Americans. Mohammed Amin Weqad — The first leader of Hizb-e Islami. Replaced by Hekmatyar in 1978. Najib — Also known as Dr Najib, or Dr Najibullah. The communist regime’s head of intelligence during the Soviet occupation and, later, president. Professor Ghulam Mohammed Niazi — The founding father of Islamism in Afghanistan. Dean of Islamic law at Kabul University and a spiritual mentor to the Muslim Youth. Saifuddin Nasratyar — A close friend of Hekmatyar. Co-founder of the Muslim Youth and one of the movement’s most extreme activists. Sayed Rahman Wahidyar — Commander of Hizb’s Fatah Division. Fought alongside Osama bin Laden in the war against the Soviets. Sibghatullah Mojaddedi — An Islamic scholar and rival of the Muslim Youth who briefly served as president in the first mujahideen government. Sulaiman Layeq — Co-founder of the Afghanistan communist party and a key leftwing ideologue. Toran Amanullah — Commander of Hizb’s Sama division and a staunch Hekmatyar loyalist. ‘The devil flows in mankind as blood flows.’ – Saying attributed to the Prophet Mohammed