Former Afghan rebel set to appear in public

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan

After decades in hiding, former Afghan rebel leader Gulbudin Hekmatyar could be set to reappear in the country after being offered residence in Nangarhar province, which neighbors the capital Kabul.

Hekmatyar inked a landmark peace deal with the Kabul government in September that has paved the way for his return to the political arena. He is believed to be at a secret location in Pakistan.

On Wednesday, Nangarhar province governor Gulab Mangal told journalists in the provincial capital Jalalabad about the efforts to accommodate the former rebel leader.

The provincial government in Nangarhar has dedicated a complex of the Ministry of Tribal and Border Affairs in Jalalabad city to the former Mujahedeen leader and his close aides.

Hekmatyar is expected to appear in public once his name is removed from the United Nation's blacklist, which President Ashraf Ghani formally requested during a meeting with a U.N. Security Council delegation last month.

The 69-year old originally hails from the northern Kunduz province and spent his political initially fighting against the Soviets and then against various factions of the Mujaheeden during the civil war of the 1990s, before later going into self-imposed exile.

Also on Wednesday, a number of high profile members of his party Hezb-e-Islami (HI) entered Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Many of his workers and loyalists were based in the Shamshato Refugee Camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, and most returned following a crackdown against refugees in Pakistan as well as the peace deal between the Afghan government and the HI party.

Hekmatyar is likely to resettle in Jalalabad for a while before finally entering the capital Kabul.