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Harakat ul-Mujahedin |
Harakat ul-Ansar
| Formerly known as the Harakat ul-Ansar, the HUM is an Islamic militant
group based in Pakistan that operates primarily in Kashmir. Originally
established to fight in Afghanistan against the Soviet occupation, the HUM
has become an international network of fighters for Islamic causes all over
the world. Its headquarters is at Raiwind in Punjab, where it holds its
annual conferences.
The HUM is a member of Osama bin Ladin's "Islamic World Front for the struggle against the Jews and the Crusaders" (Al-Jabhah al-Islamiyyah al-`Alamiyyah li-Qital al-Yahud wal-Salibiyyin). The Front was declared in an announcement on February 1998 at a press conference in Pakistan. Fazlur Rehman Khalil, one of the HUM's leaders signed bin Ladin's fatwa in February 1998 calling for attacks on US and Western interests. The organization operates terrorist training camps in eastern Afghanistan and suffered casualties in the US missile strikes on Bin Ladin-associated training camps in Khost in August 1998. Fazlur Rehman Khalil subsequently warned that HUM would take revenge on the United States. In 1997 the US Government placed the HUM on its list of foreign terrorist groups. This prompted Pakistani security agencies, which covertly back Muslim insurgents in Kashmir, to distance themselves from the organizations. But Pakistan has not cracked down on the group's militant activities in Kashmir fearing a backlash from Islamic fundamentalist groups. Indian security forces in Kashmir confront at least a dozen major insurgent groups of varying size and ideological orientation. The more prominent groups include the secular pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and the radical Islamic and pro-Pakistani groups Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Hizbollah, Harkat-ul-Mujahedin, and Ikhwanul Muslimeen. According to the leader of the organization, Maulana Saadatullah Khan, the group's main objective is to continue the armed struggle against non-believers and "anti-Islamic forces." The organization seeks Kashmir's accession to Pakistan. |
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The Harakat ul-Mujahedin was initially established in central Punjab in Pakistan
in the early 1980s by Islamic religious elements. A few months after its
formation, the HUM began sending volunteers to Afghanistan in order to assist
the Afghan Mujahidin groups. Volunteers were recruited from Pakistan and
Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK). The HUM was estimated to have recruited about
5,000 volunteers and sent them into Afghanistan. The recruitment was funded by
money from supporters in Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia (including Osama bin
Ladin).
As the war in Afghanistan dragged on, the HUM recruited volunteers from the Muslim communities in other countries. About 6,000 volunteers were recruited from Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Jammu & Kashmir of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and the Philippines.
The initial batch of HUM volunteers was trained in the use of arms and ammunition and explosives in training camps in the Paktia province of Afghanistan run by Jalaluddin Haqqani, the leader of the Hezb Islami (Khalis) Afghan Mujahidin group. Haqqani has since joined the Taliban.
Subsequently, the HUM set up its own training camps in Afghan territory just across Miran Shah in the NWFP. Some of the best fighters of the Afghan war came from the HUM training camps.
After the Afghan Mujahideen captured power in Kabul in April 1992, the HUM converted itself into an international network of fighters for defending the rights of the Muslims all over the world. The name of the organisation was changed as Harakat ul-Ansar in 1993 and the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, another organisation of Afghan vintage, merged with it. From 1992, the HUM spread its activities to Jammu & Kashmir of India, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Bosnia, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Myanmar and the Philippines.
The training camps of the Harakat ul-Mujahedin bore the brunt of the American
cruise missile attacks on 20 August following the bombing of the U.S. embassies
in Tanzania and Kenya. Fazlur Rahman Khalil claimed that nine HUM members died
in the US attack on its camps in the Khost area. On August 23,1998 Azizur Rahman
Danish, the head of the Sindh branch of the HUM, warned, “The US air strikes
have drawn a clear dividing line between the Muslim Ummah and non-believers and
this is the beginning of a crusade. The USA will be paid back in the same coin.”
The HUM is a Sunni organisation, ideologically close to the Deoband school of
thought and to Wahabism. It's ideology is similar to that of the Markaz Dawa Al
Irshad and the Taliban. It holds to a very strict interpretation of Islamic law
and denounces pluralist, parliamentary democracy and equal rights for women as
the corrupting influence of the West on Islamic societies.
Initially, the HUM's objective was stated to be the organization of
humanitarian relief for the Afghan refugees in the North-West Frontier Province
(NWFP) of Pakistan. However, since the end of the Afghan war it has set itself
up as a supporter of Islamic Jihad against the secular Muslim governments and
against the West.
While Fazlur Rahman Khalil is often named as the head of the HUM, the US State
Department’s Counter-Terrorism Division identifies the leader of the group as
Maulana Sadaatullah Khan. It is believed that while Rahman Khalil heads the HUM
for the whole of Pakistan, Sadaatullah Khan heads its POK unit.
Based in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, the group's members conduct insurgent and terrorist activities primarily in Kashmir. The HUM trains its militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The HUA has several thousand armed supporters located in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, and in the southern Kashmir and the Doda regions of India composed of mostly Pakistanis and Kashmiris, and Afghans.
Membership is open to all who support the HUA’s objectives and are willing to take the group’s 40-day training course. It has a core militant group of about 300, mostly Pakistanis and Kashmiris, but includes Afghans and Arab veterans of the Afghan war.
The HUA has several thousand armed supporters located in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, and in the southern Kashmir and the Doda regions of India. Senior Pakistani intelligence officials estimated that Harkat commands at least 500 well-trained militants. HUA is composed of mostly Pakistanis and Kashmiris, but including Afghans and Arab veterans of the Afghan war. The HUA uses light and heavy machineguns, assault rifles, mortars, explosives, and rockets.
The HUM draws its volunteers from the Tabligi Jamaat (TJ), which ostensibly carries on missionary and charitable work among Muslims, not only in Pakistan, but also in other countries.
The HUM's funding comes from donations from sympathizers in Saudi Arabia and
other Gulf and Islamic states and from Pakistanis and Kashmiris. The source and
amount of HUM's military funding are unknown. The organization may recieve an
unknown amount of monetary support from Pakistan. It is a member of the United
Jihad Council [Muttahida Jihad Council - MJC] set up in 1994 by Pakistan's Inter
Services Intelligence agency. Among the other member organizations:
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Jihad, Al-Barq,
Ikhwan-ul-Mussalmin, Tariq-ul-Mujahideen.
HUM has carried out a number of operations against Indian troops and civilian
targets in Kashmir. It has been linked to the Kashmiri militant group Al-Faran
that kidnapped five Western tourists in Kashmir in July 1995; one was killed in
August 1995, and the other four reportedly were killed in December of the same
year.
In June 1994 the HUM kidnapped two British citizens in India. The HUM captured Lt.Col. Bhupinder Singh in January and demanded that Indian forces turn over an HUM commander in return for Singh’s release. When the Indian authorities refused, the militants killed Singh. In mid-May 1994, HUM militants conducted two attacks in Doda district in which they stopped buses, forced the passengers off , then singled out individuals for execution—the last victim was a 14-year-old Muslim boy.
Harakat ul-Mujahedin members have participated in insurgent and terrorist operations in Kashmir, Burma, Tajikistan and Bosnia. The HUA’s Burma branch, located in the Arakans, trains local Muslims in weapons handling and guerilla warfare. In Tajikistan, HUA members have served with and trained Tajik resistance elements. The first group of HUA militants entered Bosnia in 1992. The source and amount of HUM’s military funding are unknown, but are believed to come from sympathetic Arab countries and wealthy Pakistanis and Kashmiris.
The HUM has been linked to the Kashmir militant group Al Faran that which
kidnapped four Western hostages in July 1995. One of the hostages was killed in
August 1995, and the other four reportedly were killed in December of the same
year.
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