On the turning away

As the Jamat-e-Islami Kashmir has traditionally been closer to its Pakistani wing rather than the Indian one, this new outfit had a well-knit organisational setup and cadre-based structure at its disposal across the Valley. The group was re-named Hizbul Mujahideen and Master Ahsan Dar, a militant leader from Pattann, north Kashmir was the first commander-in-chief.

The group initiated a massive recruitment drive across the Kashmir Valley after establishing a network of trained guides, generally residents of bordering villages. In fact, most of these guides had been doing cross-border smuggling before the emergence of militancy. Unlike the JKLF, the Hizb conducted unchecked mass recruitment drives to send boys across for arms training. It was later blamed for trying to swell its ranks without caring for the quality of recruits. Militancy, till then a hush-hush affair, came out into the open. Passenger buses were being run from Srinagar to take fresh recruits to Kupwara, from where they would cross the border.

In late 1991, the pro-Pakistan Tehreek-e-Jihad-e-Islami TJI, led by Abdul Majeed Dar 8212; who announced the ceasefire offer 8212; merged with Hizb. TJI was then the biggest militant outfit in north Kashmir. Soon Hizb became the largest militant group, and Master Ahsan Dar had more than 10,000 militants under his command. By now, JKLF had completely been marginalised, and Pakistan had embargoed arms and money supply to it. While, two training camps 8212; Jhal and Dhani 8212; were launched in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir PoK for the Hizb.

Though almost 150 pro-Pakistan groups mushroomed across the Valley, Hizb was the only organisation with a large network. Majority of the groups existed only on paper and did little more than issue press releases. But there was a rationale behind floating so many of them: minimise the chances of a group claiming responsibility for an attack on security forces as well as prevent any stronger outfit from directly establishing contact with security agencies.

Then, the Jamat-e-Islami decided to openly steer militancy. Master Ahsan Dar claimed that his outfit to be the fouji bazu armed wing of Jamat. However, this split the Hizb, with a prominent commander, Nasir-ul-Islam, launching his own Hizbul Mujahideen. To checkmate the Hizb top brass and the Jamat, Nasir-ul-Islam claimed his splinter group to be Islam ka fouji bazu armed wing of Islam. Thus began the major division within the outfit. However, Nasir-ul-Islam later changed his outfit8217;s name to Jamait-ul-Mujahideen.

Islam was later killed, allegedly in custody, in Srinagar. The group had taken on itself to discipline8217; the media. In fact, it had launched a terror campaign against the local Doordarshan and All India Radio stations. It was almost wiped out, but got a fillip when one of its jailed commanders, Ghulam Rasool Shah alias General Abdullah, recently escaped from police custody. Abdullah crossed over to Pakistan and is trying to reorganise the group.

In a bid to tighten its grip on the Hizb, Jamat launched a clean-up operation within the top brass. The first step was a change in leadership, since the Jamat was not comfortable with Ahsan Dar. On November 11, 1991, a senior Jamat leader, Mohammad Yousuf Shah alias Syed Salahudin was made Supreme Commander of the outfit, superseding Dar. To maintain absolute control over the outfit, which was now dominating militancy across the state, Salahudin divided the organisation into administrative and military wings. The administrative wing manned by Jamat leaders had supremacy over the militant commanders in the field. In fact, Hizb introduced district administrators, who were always be senior Jamat activists.

Another leading militant outfit, Allah Tigers, also merged with Hizb, expanding its base in Srinagar city. Hizb, however, had another split when its former commander Ahsan Dar parted ways and launched the Muslim Mujahideen, based in Anantnag. Unnerved by Dar8217;s popularity, Hizb kidnapped him from Anantnag in May 1992. He was released only to rush to Pakistan to seek fresh support. However, Dar8217;s new outfit could not match Hizb on the ground. And after his arrest, a majority of the group shifted loyalities and joined the counter-insurgency force. The Muslim Mujahideen commander in south Kashmir, Azad Nabi, later contested elections as well.

Foreign militants started joining Hizb and were deployed as bodyguards of the top Hizb leadership, besides running training camps in remote villages. These foreigners later became part of assault groups. With the increase in the number of foreign militants, the local-foreigner tussle also surfaced within Hizb. In fact, the foreign cadre was unprepared to work under the local command. Finally in 1998, the Hizb top brass constituted a separate group Al Badr, exclusively for its foreign cadre. Al Badr, which is led by a Pakistani national Bakht Zameen, has completely severed ties with Hizb. It was one of the groups that vehemently opposed Hizb8217;s ceasefire proposal.

In 1993, Hizb was the only active outfit in the field, with a vast network of more than 6,000 militants and a large upper-level base of Jamat-e-Islami across the Valley. However, the first blow on the Hizb was in 1994, when the government managed to create a counter-insurgency force. Aimed at wiping out the Hizb, the force was led by Kuka Parrey in Sonawari-Bandipore area, Sareer Khan in Pattan, Nabi Azad in rural Anantnag and Hilal Hider in Anantnag town. Called Ikhwan, it targeted the Jamat network and at least 2,000 Jamat activists and leaders were killed, besides scores of Hizb cadre.

Hizb had also established a powerful women8217;s wing, Binat-ul-Islam which was led by Umi-Arifa. The group would visit residences of slain militants, besides affected families.

Around 5,500 of the 11,000-odd militants killed in the past 11 years of violence in Kashmir have been from the Hizb, according to a top security agency. Despite massive efforts by security forces and the Ikhwan, it remains the biggest indigenous outfit in the state. Though the army believes the Hizb has around 750-850 active members out of 1,500 militants operating in the Valley, sources in security agencies say the number of Hizb militants is actually 3,000.

Hizb also runs a news agency from Pakistan, Kashmir Press International. Its research centre, the Kashmir Study Centre based in Muzaffarabad, PoK, is led by Jamat-e-Islami naib amir deputy chief, Ghulam Nabi Nowshehri and Jamat ideologues, G.M. Sofi and Prof M Ashraf Saraf.

The outfit8217;s propoganda arsenal comprises three films: Barood ka Toufa Gift of Explosives, Afghan ki Lalkar War cry of an Afghan and Gazi Ibni Qasim a film on the life of Pak Jamat chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmad.

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