Hizbul Mujahideen, also spelled Hizb-ul-Mujahidin (), is a Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist organisation that has been engaged in the Kashmir insurgency since 1989. It aims to separate Kashmir from India and merge it with Pakistan,** and is thus one of the most important players in the region as it evolved the narrative of the Kashmir conflict by steering the struggle away from nationalism and towards jihadism.
Founded in September 1989 as an umbrella group of Islamist militants, Hizbul Mujahideen quickly came under the control of Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir;* it is considered to be the military wing of the organisation. It was supported, since its inception, by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and was established through an effort initiated under erstwhile Pakistani president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. It is headquartered in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Azad Kashmir,; and also has liaison offices in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan's political and military capital cities, respectively.
The organisation has claimed responsibility for multiple armed attacks in Kashmir.A sample:
It has been designated as a terrorist group by the European Union, India, Canada, and the United States. See also
It remains a lawfully-operating organisation in Pakistan.
Foundation Origins The efforts for the creation of the Hizbul Mujahideen go back to 1980, when Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq called the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami in Azad Kashmir, Maulana Abdul Bari, and asked for assistance in raising an insurgency in Indian-administered Kashmir.; ; Zia said that he would be able to divert funds and resources from the Afghan mujahideen for a conflict in Kashmir. Bari travelled to the Kashmir Valley and met with the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir. Protracted negotiations continued for three years when finally, the founding amir of the Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir, Maulana Saaduddin Tarabali, was invited for a meeting with Zia ul-Haq in May 1983. Saaduddin wanted complete operational control of the insurgency, with Pakistan's role limited to military training and financial support. Pakistan agreed albeit reluctantly, and a deal was struck. Maulana Saaduddin sent his own son as part of the first group of volunteers for military training.
However, the progress with Jamaat-e-Islami was sluggish. The ISI got frustrated with it and started looking for other options. It made contact with Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in 1984 and struck a deal with it in 1986. According to scholars, JKLF was only a short-term expedient for ISI, a means to spur Jamaat-e-Islami into action. Some 10,000 militants were trained by July 1988, operating in fifty units, when an insurgency was launched. Operating under the JKLF banner were also a number of Islamist jihadi groups that owed loyalty to Jamaat-e-Islami: a group called "Zia Tigers" operating since 1987, "Al-Hamza" since 1988, "Hizbul Ansar" led by Muzaffar Shah, a largest and best organized group called "Ansarul Islam", and a subsidiary of it called "Al-Badr". According to Arif Jamal, "this vast network of jihadi groups worked within the JKLF for many months; they were among the most active members of the insurgency."
In August 1989, the Jamaat-e-Islami of Azad Kashmir sent a commander called Masood Sarfraz to bring the various Islamist groups together and create a serious organisation parallel to the JKLF. "Hizbul Mujahideen" ("Party of holy warriors") was his chosen name for the new umbrella group. While his efforts were under way, Ansarul Islam, which was under pressure from the Indian security forces, had also changed its name to "Hizbul Mujahideen". The two organisations operated in parallel for a few weeks, but merged in October 1989. Muhammad Ahsan Dar was chosen as the leader of the united group in this meeting, but Hilal Ahmed Mir (alias Nasirul Islam) of the former Ansarul Islam is said to have been elected as its amir later.
Jamaat takeover
The launch of insurgency by JKLF in July 1988 alerted the members of the Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir to the fact that "a new game has started". Informal relationships with the militant groups were strengthened, with various Jamaat members taking direct roles. The senior leadership of the Jamaat did not get involved, except for Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who worked with Muhammad Ahsan Dar in his personal capacity.
The ISI and the Jamaat-e-Islami of Azad Kashmir were intent on bringing Hizbul Mujahideen under the control of Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir. A meeting was arranged in Kathmandu on 14 January 1990, with participants from the Jamaat organisations from Pakistan, Azad Kashmir and the Kashmir Valley. The Kashmiri Jamaat was resistant to direct involvement in the insurgency, saying that it would destroy the organisation and open it to Indian assault.Anand K. Sathay, Fai goes back a long way with Jamaat in Kashmir , Asian Age, 24 July 2011. But Syed Ali Shah Geelani dramatically appeared when the negotiations stalled and pushed the Jamaat into supporting the insurgency. Having decided to participate in the militancy, states Arif Jamal, the Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir moved to "decisive action, activating a decade of planning".
The constitution of Hizbul Mujahideen was finalised on 10 June 1990, under ISI direction. It allowed Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir to nominate one of its members as the leader of the group, which, according to Arif Jamal, "virtually turned the organization into a subsidiary of Jamat-i-Islami". The Jamaat nominee was to be called the patron, who would nominate an amir, who would in turn nominate a chief commander. Jamaat appointed Mohammad Yusuf Shah, its district chief of Srinagar, as the patron of Hizb. He took the nom de guerre of "Syed Salahuddin", and quickly consolidated total control over the organisation.
In a power play, Ahsan Dar announced at a press conference in July 1990 that Hizbul Mujahideen had formed an alliance with Jamaat. This only served to strengthen Yusuf Shah's position and a weakening of his own. Hilal Ahmed Mir, who was Deobandi by persuasion, reacted against the announcement and ended up getting marginalised as well. He quit the group and set up a new one, which came to be called Jamiatul Mujahideen. Masood Sarfraz came again in September 1990 to consolidate the grouping. Tehreek-i-Jihad-i-Islami, another umbrella group formed in 1989, also merged with Hizbul Mujahideen and its leader Abdul Majeed Dar was appointed as the secretary general. After the completion of consolidation, Yusuf Shah alias Salahuddin left for Azad Kashmir, where he managed the group's relationship with the ISI as well as the Jamaat of Azad Kashmir.
By the time of its establishment, the organisation asserted a strength of over 10,000 armed cadres, the majority of whom were trained in Pakistan, with some having received training in Afghanistan during the Afghan Civil War. Heavily critical of all other actors who accepted or advocated for Kashmir's complete independence as the third option (as an alternative to merging with either India or Pakistan) in the Kashmir conflict, the group solely advocated for an outright integration of Kashmir with Pakistan. Paul Staniland, an American political scientist at the University of Chicago, notes that the organisation primarily mobilised through the Jamaat-e-Islami network, and initially represented a minority politico-religious ideology of theirs.
Early days The organisation's first major strike is deemed to be the assassination of Maulvi Farooq Shah, the then Mirwaiz of Kashmir and chairman of the All Jammu and Kashmir Awami Action Committee, a coalition of disparate political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, on 21 May 1990. 21 people were killed in the clashes that ensued. The group gradually sought for a greater control of the socio-economic sphere of Kashmir and in June 1990 asked farmers to abstain from exporting their produce through "Hindu middlemen" in order to severe the link between the "local rich class" and their counterparts in the Indian state.
On 27 October 1990, the organisation adopted a resolution supporting the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan.
The group grew and units were set up at the Jammu province by February 1991. Field intelligence units were also set up across different places. Cadre was extensively mobilised in the name of Islam The establishment of the Supreme Advisory Council followed by a student wing took place in spring 1991. The latter though became a separate organisation in its entirety, in June 1991, under the leadership of Nasir-ul-Islam, after it organised the kidnapping of a high-profile bureaucrat. After a 1991 merger with Tehreek-e-Jihad-e-Islami (TJI), which was backed by Jamaat, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen gained significant military might and its strength reached about 10,000 fighters.
By the end of March 1991, Hizbul Mujahideen demanded that the local government provides the list of all permanent residence certificates and that all non-residents leave the state within one month.
Insurgency decade
Friction with JKLF and alliance with Jamaat The first three years of the insurgency (1990–92) were dominated by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). Despite being supported by Pakistan, they under the renewed ideology of their new leaders shifted to a secular pro-independence stance and attracted huge support in the valley in their strategy to organise a mass-resistance, that would compel India to withdraw from Kashmir.
But, a lack of a social fabric among the new mass-recruits, (who often did not share a common ideology) coupled with an urban-centric focus led to the gradual weakening of JKLF. Indian counter-insurgency operations removed much of its leadership, wiping out its central control. Pakistan was also heavily incentivised by the popularisation of Jihadi sentiments in the Kashmiri youth; and utilised the situation to gain control over Kashmir. By 1991, ISI had begun to cease providing of funds to JKLF, (which stood its ground for independence of the territory) and were instead advocating splinter factions to break off and form their own militant groups after receiving due training in their territory. Subsequently, Hizbul Mujahideen came to be favoured by the ISI as a potentially valuable resource and finally, after JKLF rejected certain demands of nuancing their pro-independence stance; all of their erstwhile camps in Azad Kashmir were handed over to Hizbul Mujahideen. Jamaat also scoped the opportunity and choose to infiltrate Hizbul Mujahideen from within, by installing loyal members at key central positions. Numerous jihadi factions too departed from JKLF and were subsumed within Hizbul Mujahideen.
Soon enough, arrests by Indian forces necessitated a re-organisation of the central command and in the reshuffle, Ahsan Dhar, a moderate leader with an independent mind was asked to step down and Syed Salahuddin, a radical Jamaat loyalist, was appointed instead. Dar was soon expelled by Salahuddin loyalists in late 1991 and formed a splinter group-- "Muslim Mujahideen", which quickly fell apart after his arrest in 1993. An overall restructuring to enable a collective, hierarchical and institutionalised leadership along the lines of Jamaat soon followed which lend a much-needed organisational strength that lacked JKLF. Hizbul Mujahideen also managed to increase their penetration into the rural belt courtesy the utilisation of Jamaat's socio-religious authority and homogeneity. An implementation of Sunni culture in the ground-roots helped their cause further.