Editing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (section)

==Soviet war in Afghanistan==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[image:Hikmatyar with erdogan.JPG|thumb|Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (middle) with President of [[Turkey]] Mr. [[Recep Tayyip Erdoğan]] (right) in [[Istanbul]], [[Turkey]] during his visit after the successful end of Afghan Jihad]] -->
{{see also|Soviet–Afghan War}}
During the [[Soviet–Afghan War]], Hekmatyar received large amounts of aid from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United States.<ref>Peter Dale Scott, ''The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire and the Future of America'' (September 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-520-23773-5}}), p. 129</ref><ref name=HumanRightsWatch2001October>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/afghan-bck1023.htm|title=Backgrounder on Afghanistan: History of the War|date=October 2001|publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]]|accessdate=2007-03-17}}</ref> Hekmatyar also gained the support of the British [[MI6]] and even met [[Margaret Thatcher]] in Downing Street.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/secret-affairs-by-mark-curtis-2038691.html | location=London | work=The Independent | first=Kim | last=Sengupta | title=Secret Affairs, By Mark Curtis | date=2010-07-30}}</ref> According to the ISI, their decision to allocate the highest percentage of covert aid to Hekmatyar was based on his record as an effective [[anti-Soviet]] military commander in Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite book|last=Yousaf|first=Mohammad|author2=Adkin, Mark|title=Afghanistan, the bear trap: defeat of a superpower|year=1992|publisher=Casemate|isbn=978-0-9711709-2-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/afghanistanthebe00yous/page/104 104]|url=https://archive.org/details/afghanistanthebe00yous/page/104}}</ref> Others describe his position as the result of having "almost no grassroots support and no military base inside Afghanistan", and thus being the much more "dependent on Pakistani President [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq|Zia-ul-Haq]]'s protection and financial largesse" than other mujahideen factions.<ref>Kaplan, Robert, ''Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan'', New York: Vintage Departures, 2001, p. 69</ref> 

Author [[Peter Bergen]] states that "by the most conservative estimates, $600 million" in American aid through Pakistan "went to the Hizb party ... Hekmatyar's party had the dubious distinction of never winning a significant battle during the war, training a variety of militant Islamists from around the world, killing significant numbers of mujahideen from other parties, and taking a virulently anti-Western line. In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of American aid, Hekmatyar also received the lion's share of aid from the Saudis."<ref>Bergen, Peter L., ''Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden'', New York : Free Press, 2001, p. 69</ref> Hekmatyar's constant scheming against all of the mujahideen factions led Pakistani general and leader [[Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq]] to warn Hekmatyar that it was Pakistan that made him an Afghan leader and that Pakistan could and would destroy him if he resisted operational control by ISI.<ref>Henry S. Bradsher, ''Afghan Communism and Soviet Interventions'', Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 185</ref>