Hekmatyar gives Karzai 15 demands for possible peace pact with Govt.

Kabul, Mar 23(ANI): The Al-Qaeda-linked militant organization Hezb-e-Islami has handed over a list of 15 demands to the Afghan Government, as Afghan President Hamid Karzai's moves towards a political dialogue with insurgent groups gathered pace.ezb-e-Islami spokesman, Harun Zarghun, said that a five-man delegation representing its leader and former Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, arrived in Kabul ten days ago and had met President Karzai.

"One of them is to set a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces and another the formation of an interim administration," The Times quoted Zarghun, as saying.

Meanwhile, a presidential spokesman confirmed that the delegation had met President Karzai.

"They brought a peace plan, a proposal, and the President is studying it," the spokesman said.

Hezb-e-Islami was founded as an anti-Soviet militia in the 1980s, when it received US funding. It later turned its guns on other Mujahidin groups in the civil war of the 1990s.

After 2001 the organization split into a legal political entity, which is the largest bloc in parliament, and a militant wing loyal to Hekmatyar, who has been in hiding ever since.

President Karzai is expected to hold a meeting in Kabul next month to establish dialogue with militant groups. (ANI)