Gulbuddin Hekmatyar... who used to be known in intelligence circles as
The Most Evil Man in the Worldbut who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil...
in an interview published Wednesday has denied having any links with the Pakistain Taliban, condemning the Pak turban outfit's strategy of blowing up schools and blocking girls' education.
Hekmatyar, a former prime minister who leads Afghanistan's second largest turban group Hizb-e-Islami, told Britannia's Daily Telegraph newspaper that he was against the blowing up of schools and educational institutions "not only in Afghanistan and Pakistain but elsewhere in the world."
Ummm... But it doesn't happen anywhere else in the world...
"I don't think that a devoted mujahid could be involved in such things," said Hekmatyar, accusing 'foreign intelligence agencies' of being involved in such attacks.
The Pak Taliban's blocking of girls' schooling was thrown into the spotlight in October by its attempted murder of 15-year-old education campaigner Malala Yousafzai on her schoolbus.
Hekmatyar indicated that Hizb-e-Islami, notorious for its bloody siege of Kabul in the 1990s, has softened some of its hardline Islamist policies which included banning women from education.
He insisted that the group considers "education is as necessary for girls as it is for boys", though they object to combined male and female classes.