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This is an archive article published on January 31, 2000

India is enemy no 1, says Harkat chief

ISLAMABAD, JANUARY 30: Sitting crosslegged beneath posters of heavy machine guns, Maulana Fazl-ur Rehman Khalil, Chief of Harkat-ul-Mujahi...

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ISLAMABAD, JANUARY 30: Sitting crosslegged beneath posters of heavy machine guns, Maulana Fazl-ur Rehman Khalil, Chief of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, says his organisation has one enemy, India, and its troops are fighting one jihad or holy war and that’s in Kashmir.

“We are only fighting in Kashmir, we are not fighting anywhere else, not in Chechnya, not anywhere but in Kashmir,” Khalil told AP on Saturday in a rare interview held at the organisation’s office tucked inside a maize of streets in Rawalpindi.

Harkat-ul-Mujahideen is considered one of the most militant of the groups active in Kashmir. The United States calls Khalil’s group a terrorist organisation and has been pressing Pakistan’s Army-led Government to shut it down.

The United States has warned Pakistan that it could be listed as a sponsor of terrorism making it ineligible for virtually all US aid if it gave direct support to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. “We don’t get any support from Pakistan. Kashmiris, who think of themselves as being part ofPakistan, are becoming frustrated because of this. They have taken up arms because neither Pakistan nor the United Nations has done anything for them,” said Khalil in a stark cement box-shaped room barren but for floor cushions and the posters.

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