Harkat beats the ban, born in a new garb

HMA is the group responsible for the suicide bombings in Karachi and also two abortive attempts on the life of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Most of its activists and its top leader are presently under arrest. It has also had links with the sectarian Deobandi terrorist organisation, Lashkar-e Jhangvi.

Reportedly, the new JA still retains links, like other groups, with Taliban remnants and Al-Qaeda. Sources close to the JA told this reporter that the new organisation came into existence after six-month-long negotiations between HM and the breakaway faction of HJI. Meanwhile, reports say some clerics and intermediaries are trying to get the rest of the HJI to also merge with HM in its new incarnation, the Jamiat-ul Ansar.

The leaders of HJI that have joined the JA are Maulana Abdul Samad Sial (patron), Commander Illias Kashmiri (commander-in-chief), Doctor Badar Niazi and others.

Interestingly, when HM approached Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) to convince its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, to join them, he refused. JA sources say ‘‘our doors are still open for him and other activists of Jaish’’.

The HM had suffered a major setback when Masood Azhar formed JeM in February 2000, after his release from an Indian jail after the Kandahar plane hijack. A large number of HM activists joined JeM and Azhar’s organisation also captured HM assets in Punjab. Sources say Osama bin Laden compensated HM for the losses.

When the US bombed Afghanistan in 1998, two HM training camps were destroyed and 21 of its activists were killed. Later, at a news conference in Islamabad, HM had vowed to avenge the attack. That prompted Washington to declare it an FTO.

When the US attacked Afghanistan, HM fought on the side of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban against the Americans.

According to the some reports, HM got a new lease of life following electoral gains by the religious coalition of Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal in the 2002 Pakistan general elections. (The Friday Times)