Editing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (section)

==Early Life and Political Beginnings==
Hekmatyar grew up in a relatively modest family in northern Afghanistan. He studied engineering at Kabul University in the early 1970s, where he became involved in Islamist student movements, influenced by the [[Muslim Brotherhood]]. His early activism leaned toward anti-communist and anti-Soviet ideologies, aligning him with other Islamist factions opposing Afghanistan’s secular government. In 1975, he founded Hezb-e-Islami, a splinter group from the broader Islamist movement, advocating for an Islamic state. His radical views and willingness to use violence quickly set him apart, leading to his arrest by the Afghan government in 1972 and later exile to Pakistan after a failed coup attempt in 1975.