Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan denies joining Islamic State

'News reports that Hizb-e-Islami could join Islamic State are outrageous and totally baseless,' says HIA spokesperson


Tahir Khan September 03, 2014

ISLAMABAD: Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), led by former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, on Wednesday dismissed media reports about it considering to join the Islamic State (IS) as completely false.

The BBC had quoted a purported Hizb-e-Islami commander, Mirwais as claiming that the group has “links with some Daish members” and the leadership will announce their allegiance to them.

The Hizb-e-Islami spokesperson Haroon Zarghoon categorically rejected the reports and said that neither he nor anyone else in the group recognize the so-called commander who has made the claim.

“The news reports that Hizb-e-Islami could join the Islamic State are outrageous and totally baseless. I categorically reject it,” Zarghoon told The Express Tribune from an undisclosed location by phone.

He also denied any links with a pamphlet, seeking support for the IS, distributed in the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Peshawar district as well as in Afghan refugee camps. The 12-page versions of the pamphlet in Pasto and Dari languages have been sent to Afghan journalists in Peshawar.

He said Hizb-e-Islami recognize the fact that the Islamic State has emerged as the result of “anti-Muslim policies of the United States and their brutalities against Muslims in Iraq and other Islamic countries.”

Hizb-e-Islami chief Hekmatyar in a recent article touched on the IS issue and said it was a reaction to the “brutalities against Sunnis in Iraq at the behest of the Americans.”

“The IS state is gaining momentum as the US has continued its anti-Muslim policies,” Hekmatyar said in his article published in Hizb’s Daily Shahadat.

COMMENTS (2)

Kolsaat | 9 years ago | Reply

@Raj - USA: You are right. In the last fifty years some ten Muslims have died in violent conflict. Of these deaths ninety percent have been killed by Muslims themselves. No Muslim has acknowledged this fact. The carnage continues. The killings that are taking place in Iraq, Afghanistan etc are Muslims killing Muslims as there are no foreign troops there. What is the purpose of this senseless violence so that a Muslim group will hold power over poor defenceless men, women and Children. No one cares about the misery brought on the heads of other Muslims. What a waste.

Raj - USA | 9 years ago | Reply

"He said Hizb-e-Islami recognize the fact that the Islamic State has emerged as the result of “anti-Muslim policies of the United States and their brutalities against Muslims in Iraq and other Islamic countries.”"

Muslims are killing muslims and blame US and others that they are doing so at the behest of Americans. Only muslims can make such claims. Has anyone ever heard followers of any other religion make such claims i.e., they are killing or victimizing their own because others are victimizing them.

What sense or logic can you talk if these are the claims?

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