SUMMARY
Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction (also known as Unity Party – Akbari Faction and later Hizbe Wahdat Milli-e Islami Afghanistan: Party of the National and Islamic Unity of Afghanistan), was an Afghan Shia Islamist armed group and political party that formally splintered from Hizb-i Wahdat in 1994. In contrast to its predecessor, the ideology of Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction prioritized a Shia Islamist agenda over ethnic nationalism. The base of Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction was in the Hazarajat area of central Afghanistan and the group was strongest in the Waras district of Bamiyan province. Its supporters comprised of Shia followers from the Hazara ethnic group. Most had originally been members of Sepah-i Pasdaran (also known as Pasdaran-i-Jihad-i-Islami), one of the Shia Islamist groups that had been operating in the Hazarajat area before merging into Hizb-i Wahdat in 1989. Between 1996 and 2001, Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction was responsible for maintaining control of the Hazarajat area under the Government of Afghanistan.
Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction was known to be a small group in terms of troops size and it only had a minor military influence. Its numbers were substantially smaller than those of its parent group, Hizb-i Wahdat, which had a troop size of 116 000 in the 1980s; however no specific figure was available.
The leader of Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction was Ustad Muhammad Akbari, who was from the Afghan Shia Qizilbash tribe in Bamiyan province. He had been the leader of Sepah-i Pasdaran before it had joined Hizb-i Wahdat and whilst he was part of Hizb-i Wahdat, Akbari had served as head of the political committee. During the Taleban-led government regime, Akbari reportedly contributed to the mitigation of large-scale atrocities in the Bamiyan province area by aligning Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction with the regime. This enabled him to maintain sufficient support to win a seat in the National Assembly during the parliamentary elections in 2005. Other important figures in Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction were Rohullah Loudin and Mustafa Kazimi, who served as the Minister of Commerce in the interim and transitional Government of Afghanistan following the fall of the Taleban in 2001.
The conflict over government in Afghanistan engaged a plethora of different armed groups, whose varying priorities often drove them to shift their alliances (see for more information Afghanistan: Government). Within this environment, it was notable that Hizb-i Wahdat – Akbari faction supported the Government of Afghanistan in contrast to its parent group, Hizb-i Wahdat (see Hizb-i Wahdat - Hizb-i Wahdat – Akbari faction. After the the Mujahidden-led Government of Afghanistan was ousted by the Taleban in 1996, Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction maintained its support for the government by allying itself with the Taleban regime. However, the fall of the Taleban regime resulted in the group being sidelined in 2001. Nonetheless, Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction retained sufficient support to win a seat in the National Assembly in 2005. In 2006, Mustafa Kazimi formed a political splinter group from Hizb-i Wahdat - Akbari faction, which was called Eqtedar-e Milli.
