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HARAKAT-UL-MUJAHIDEEN
 Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen al-Islami – HUM (The Movement of Islamic Holy Warriors)) is a Pakistani militant group which operated in Indian Kashmir since 1993 as one of many similar organizations coordinated, most likely, by the notorious Pakistani Intelligence ISI.
Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen al-Islami – HUM is an offshoot of Harkat-Ul-Ansar (the Movement of the Victorious), which was formed already in 1980, with the patronage of ISI, initially to fight the Soviet military in Afghanistan.
The group emerged when Harkat-Ul-Ansar split to two organizations in 1993: one was the Harkat-Ul-Jihad-al-Islami – HuJI, under the leadership of Qari Saifullah Akhtar and the second continued to name itself Harkat-Ul-Ansar and operated under the command of Nasrullah Mansur Langaryal, with Maulana Masood Azhar as the organization secretary and Sajjad Sajid, nick name Sajjad Afghani as the chief of operations in Indian Kashmir. They all were arrested by the Indian authorities in 1993-4. Sajjad Afghani was killed during a jailbreak in 1999.
In 1997 Maulna Fazlur Rehman Khalil reorganized and renamed the group as the Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen – HUM, probably in an attempt to by-pass USA decision, in 1997, to designate Harkat-Ul-Ansar as a terror organization. Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil stayed as the organization’s commander up to 2000.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil became one of five signatories of Osama Bin Laden’s Fatwa from 02/23/1998 titled “The World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders” - the declaration of war by Al Qaeda against the Western Democracies led by USA. He gave his attention more toward Al Qaeda and Afghanistan then the war against India in Kashmir.
After The 9/11, because of the affiliation to Al Qaeda, Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen came under immense pressure of the Pakistani Government of Pervez Musharraf. Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil stepped down as Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen Amir (Commander) in 02/2000, turning the reins over to the popular Kashmiri commander and his second-in-command, Farooq Kashmiri. Fazlur Rehman Khalil assumed the position of HUM Secretary General.
When the former leaders of Harkat-Ul-Ansar were released from Indian jail following the Flight 814 hostage taking crisis in 01/2000, they formed a new organization of their own – Jaish-e-Mohammed and many Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen members moved to the new organization.
Today (03/2009) Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen is an ephemeral group, with a small base in Muzaffarabad, in the Pakistani side of Kashmir, known as Azad Kashmir, and with members operating in Indian Kashmir, generally through cooperation with other organizations. The group runs also its own website.
Since 10/2005, Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen is designated as a terror organization in UK as well (see - Banned in U.K).
** The cellphone of Osama Bin Laden’s trusted courier Abu Ahmed al-KUwaiti, which was recovered in the Abbottabad Raid that killed both men in Pakistan, on 05/02/2011, contained contacts to Harakat-Ul-Mujahedeen and Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, senior American officials who have been briefed on the findings said, according to the New York Times, on Friday 06/24/2011.
"Al Qaeda had their own discipline, their own thinking, their own organisation. We have never ever been in touch with Osama," a spokesman for the group Ilyas Khan told the BBC in response and denied having links with Al Qaeda.
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18/03/2009 08:14:09
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