Author:
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 21, 2002
Introduction: As banned groups name
and re-name themselves-Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami is biggest and latest-scouting
for a piece of action
The May 8 bomb blast in Karachi
which claimed 14 lives and blew a hole into Pakistan's attempts to put
up a brave, new face, also gave terror a new name: the Harkat al-Jahad
al-Islami. Khalied Ahmed, columnist With reputed Pakistani weekly The Friday
Times and among the most authoritative commentators on Pakistan's homegrown
jehadi groups, says this new group, an amalgam of other terrorist groups,
could also be spreading its tenor in the Valley.
Ary Digital Tv's host Dr Masood,
whole discussing the May 8 killing of 11 French nationals in Karachi, named
one Harkat al-Jahad al-Islam as one of the suspected groups involved in
the bombing. When the Americans bombed the Taliban and Mulla Umar fled
Kandahar. A Pakistani personality also fled with him. This was Qari Saifullah
Akhtar, leader of Harkat al-Jahad al-Islam, Pakistan's biggest jehadi militia
headquartered in Kandahar.
A large number of Harkat fighters
made their way into Central Asia and Chechnya to escape the Americans.
The rest stole back into Pakistan to establish themselves in Waziristan
and Buner. Their military training camp (maskar) in Kotli in Pakistan Occupied
Kashmir swelled with new fighters and now the outfit is scouting some areas
in the NWFP to create a supplementary maskar for 'jehad' in Kashmir.
Authorities have begun the process
of reorganising the "jehad" by changing names and asking various outfits
to merge in order to cut down the large number of outfits gathered in Pakistan
occupied Kashmir. Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami has been asked to merge with
the Harkatul Mujahideen set up by Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khaleel who had
close links with Osama bin Laden. The new name given to this merger is
Jamiatul Mujahideen. It was earlier active in Kashmir under the name of
Harkatul Jahad Brigade 111.
The Jamaat Islami's Hizbul Mujahideen
has been made to absorb all the refugee Kashmiri organisations. Jaish and
Lashkar-e-Tayba have been clubbed together as Al-Jahad. All the Barelvi
organisations, so far located only in PoK have been put together as Al-Barq.
Al-Badr and Hizbe Islami have been renamed as Al-Umar Mujahideen.
The sub-militia fighting in Kashmir
is semi-autonomous and is led by chief commander Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri.
Its training camp is 20 km from Kotli in PoK, with a capacity for training
800 "warriors", and is run by one Haji Khan.
Who is Qari Saifullah Akhtar? He
was an adviser to Mullah Omar in the Taliban government. His fighters were
called "Punjabi" Taliban and were offered employment, something other outfits
could not get out of Omar. Approximately 300 Harkat fighters were killed
fighting the Northern Alliance, after which Omar gave, Harkat the permission
to build six more maskars in Kandahar, Kabul and Khost. From its base in
Afghanistan, Harkat launched its campaigns inside Uzbekistan, Tajikistan
and Chechnya.
The Harkat is the only militia which
boasts of international linkages - it is active in Arakan in Myanmar and
in Bangladesh with seminaries in Karachi, Chechnya, Sinkiang, Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan.
Its fund-raising is largely from
Pakistan, but an additional source is its activity of selling weapons to
other militias.
According to some sources, the Harkat
al-Jahad al-Islami had earlier merged with Harkatul Ansar - which was later
reportedly renamed as Harkatul Mujahideen after it was declared a terrorist
organisation by the US.
When Maulana Masood Azhar separated
from Harkatul Mujahideen and set up his own Jaish-e-Muhammad, the Harkat
al-Jahad al-Islami opposed Jaish in its journal Sada-e-Mujahid (May 2000)
and hinted that "you know-who" had showered Jaish with funds. Jaish was
given a brand new maskar in Balakot by the ISI.
Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami went into
Kashmir in 1991, but was initially opposed by the Wahhabi elements because
of its refusal to criticise the Deobandi congregation of the Tableeghi
Jamaat.
As days passed, its warriors were
recognised as "Afghanis". It finally had more "martyrs" in the "jehad"
of Kashmir than any other militia.
To date, 650 Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami
"Mujahideen" have killed in battle against the Indian army: 190 belonging
to both sides of Kashmir, nearly 200 belonging to Punjab, 49 to Sindh,
29 to Balochistan, 70 to Afghanistan, 5 to Turkey, and 49 collectively
to Uzbekistan, Bangladesh and the Arab world.
Because of its allegiance to Deobandism,
Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami did not attack the Tableeghi Jamaat, and became
the only militia whose literature was allowed to be distributed during
the Jammat's congregations.
Those in the Pakistani establishment
attending the congregation were greatly impressed by the militia's organisational
excellence. It contained more graduates of the seminaries than any other
militia, thus emphasising its religious character.
It kept away from the sectarian
conflict unlike Jaish-e-Muhammad but its men were at times put off by populist
Kashmiri Islam and reacted violently to local practices.
Harkat al-Jahad al-Islami has branch
offices in 40 districts and tehsils in Pakistan, including Multan, Gujranwala,
Gujrat, Bannu, Waziristan and Peshawar.
It also has an office in Islamabad.
The militia has accounts in two branches of Islamabad's Allied Bank, which
have not been frozen because the organisation is not under a ban.
(The Friday Times)
