Infamous Afghan warlord returns to public life after exile

MEHTARLAM: Notorious Afghan warlord and ex-prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to public life Saturday after more than 20 years in exile, calling on the Taliban to lay down their weapons and join a "caravan of peace".

Hekmatyar, white-bearded and clad in his trademark black turban, spoke to supporters at a gathering in Laghman province widely broadcast in Afghanistan, where his return to the political mainstream months after etching a landmark peace deal with Kabul has been hugely controversial.

"Come for God's sake, come and give up fighting in which the victims of this war are Afghans," he said.

"Come and join this caravan of peace... Set your goals, and I will be with you on your good goals."

Known widely in the international press as the "Butcher of Kabul", Hekmatyar is one of the most infamous warlords of Afghanistan's history, chiefly remembered for his role in the bloody civil war of the 1990s.

But the peace deal signed with Kabul in September, Afghanistan's first such agreement since the Taliban launched their insurgency in 2001, paved the way for his political comeback after more than two decades.

Hekmatyar, who heads the now largely dormant Hezb-i-Islami group, is the latest in a series of figures that Kabul has sought to reintegrate in the post-Taliban era by granting judicial immunity for past crimes.

The pattern has been well established by other warlords, such as General Abdul Rashid Dostum, currently the country's first vice president.