The Afghan government has signed a peace agreement with Hezb-e-Islami, the country's second largest militant group.
The deal grants impunity to the group's leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Islamist warlord accused of numerous atrocities.
The peace agreement with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the regional commander is paving the way for him to make a political comeback despite a history of war crimes and after years in hiding.
The deal, signed on Thursday Sep 22,2016 in Kabul, marks a symbolic victory for President Ashraf Ghani, who has struggled to revive peace talks with Taliban, the dominant opposition armed group .
Neither Hekmatyar nor Ghani were present at the signing.
The agreement will come into force when it is formally signed by Ghani and Hekmatyar, the government has said, though no date has been set.
Hekmatyar, who heads the now largely dormant Hezb-i-Islami armed group, is the latest in a series of controversial figures that the Afghan government has sought to reintegrate in the post-Taliban era.
Derided widely as the "butcher of Kabul", Hekmatyar was a prominent anti-Soviet commander in the 1980s who stands accused of killing thousands of people in the city during the 1992-1996 civil war.
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