Hekmatyar to move to Nangarhar till UN sanctions are lifted

The governor of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, Gulab Mangal has announced that the Hizb-e-Islami leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar will move into the region in the near future until his name is not removed from the United Nation's black list.

Governor Mangal said the provincial administration has allocated a house for Hekmatyar in the Border Affairs Department building in Jalalabad.

"Mr. Hekmatyar will probably live in Nangarhar temporarily and then he will move to Kabul," he said.

Meanwhile, a number of Nangarhar residents and provincial council members said Hekmatyar should respect Afghanistan's laws if he chooses to live in the province.

Once branded the "butcher of Kabul", Hekmatyar was a prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s. He is accused of killing thousands of people when his fighters fired on civilian areas of Kabul during the 1992-1996 civil war.

Human Right Watch, the New York-based watchdog, branded Hekmatyar "one of Afghanistan's most notorious war crimes suspects".

In September, he signed a peace agreement with the Afghan government following months of negotiations.

The 25-point peace agreement gives Hekmatyar and his followers' immunity for past actions and grants them full political rights.