Gulbuddin Hekmatyar... who used to be known in intelligence circles as
The Most Evil Man in the Worldbut who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil...
, who joined President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..’s government last year, has categorically denied the allegation of links with ISIS turbans made by Afghan ex-spy chief Amrullah Saleh.
ISIS has emerged as a complex and murky phenomenon in Afghan militancy as the group stepped up and expanded its attacks in Afghanistan recently.
Saleh served for years as chief of Afghan intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security
...the Afghan national intel agency...
(NDS), in the previous administration, and was a harsh critic and rival of Hekmatyar during the bloody factional fighting over power in the 1990s. His assertions come amid growing division within the Ghani government and ethnic tension stirred up mostly by politicians and factional leaders.
The veteran Hekmatyar, who is in his late 60s, is a leader of Hizb-e-Islami; one of the main Afghan factions who fought during the Cold War against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Last week, Saleh said the government "had 20 ISIS (ISIS) suspects in jug all having current or pre-reconciliation ties with Hekmatyar. None has been referred to the court system in order to cover up affiliation with Hekmatyar to save the deal. Hekmatyar has been lobbying and bargaining for their release."
Hekmatyar, in a news conference held in Kabul, Thursday, rejected Saleh’s allegations.
"It is just part of defamation (campaign) by liars. We don’t have any kind of political or party-based relations (with ISIS) and will not think about it. We don’t have relations with the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
nor with ISIS or al-Qaeda or any other party."