Pakistan Doesn't Expect Afghan Warlord to Return

By Raja Asghar

Monday February 11 10:05 AM ET

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is unlikely to seek refuge in Pakistan, his former patron, if he is kicked out of Iran, the Pakistani foreign ministry said Monday.

Iranian authorities closed down Hekmatyar's offices amid mounting calls for him to be expelled, Iranian media reported Sunday .

The move was seen as an Iranian effort to demonstrate goodwill toward the U.N.-backed interim government in neighboring Afghanistan and sparked speculation about where the anti-American, firebrand guerrilla leader might go.

One destination could be Pakistan, where Hekmatyar lived for years as one of the Afghan guerrilla leaders who fought against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

``For the moment I don't think there are any such plans,'' a Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters at a news briefing.

When a reporter pressed for a Pakistani response if Hekmatyar was to seek refuge, spokesman Aziz Ahmed khan said: ''I can't comment on the realm of speculation, but you know the circumstances in which he left, which doesn't make it very likely what you are suggesting.'' He did not elaborate.

LION'S SHARE OF ARMS

Hekmatyar and his Hezb-e-islami group was Pakistan's favorite during the anti-Soviet war when he got the lion's share of arms and money channeled to the Western-backed mujahideen (holy warriors) through Islamabad's Inter-Service Intelligence network.

Hekmatyar was in and out of the mujahideen government that took over in Kabul in 1992 after the fall of the Soviet-installed government -- and was deeply involved in the internecine warfare that doomed it to failure.

He lost favor with Pakistan after the Taliban took power in Kabul in 1996 and was forced to seek exile in Iran.

Iranian newspapers Sunday said Hekmatyar, who recently voiced hostility to the presence of foreign peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan, had acted against Iranian national security.

``Iran decided to close down Hekmatyar's offices because he did not consider the country's security policy,'' the official newspaper in Iran quoted Iranian police chief Hossein Zare-Sefat as saying.

Iran vehemently denies U.S. charges it is trying to destabilize the fragile peace in Afghanistan by arming groups hostile to Hamid Karzai's interim administration.

PAKISTAN REFUSED VISA

``Hekmatyar has limited options to find a new place of refuge in case he is expelled by Iran,'' a Pakistani Afghan affairs expert wrote in an article in The News daily Monday.

``Pakistan is the first country that comes to mind, but it is worth recalling that Islamabad refused him a visa about two years ago,'' wrote the analyst, Rahimullah Yusufzai.

``At that time Islamabad didn't want to offend the Taliban by giving a visa to Hekmatyar. Now it could again refuse a visa to Hekmatyar so as not to annoy the Karzai government, particularly its Northern Alliance component that is bitterly opposed to the Hezb-e-Islami leader,'' he wrote.

Hekmatyar expressed scorn for the Karzai government in an interview with Reuters last Tuesday, saying it was installed by foreign troops occupying Afghanistan.

``I have a lot of organized forces. They have weapons and we are in contact with them,'' he said. ``While foreign troops are present, the interim government does not have any value or meaning.''

``Hekmatyar ... would risk arrest or even death if he decided to return to Afghanistan,'' said Yusufzai.