| Harkat-ul-Mujahideen | |
|---|---|
 Flag of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen | |
| Leaders | Sajjad Afghani Fazlur Rehman Khalil |
| Dates of operation | 1985–present |
| Allegiance |  Afghanistan[1] |
| Headquarters | Pakistan |
| Ideology | Islamism,Jihadism |
| Notable attacks | Indian Airlines Flight 814 |
| Status | Designated as a terrorist group by |
| Part of | United Jihad Council[7] |
| Allies | State allies Non-state allies |
| Opponents |  India |
| Battles and wars | Soviet-Afghan war Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir Kargil War |
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (Urdu:حرکت المجاہدین,lit. 'Mujahideen movement';abbreviatedHUM) is aPakistan-basedIslamistjihadist group operating primarily inKashmir.[10] The group had links toOsama bin Laden andMullah Omar.[11]
The group has been designated as aterrorist organization by Bahrain, the United Nations, the United Kingdom and the United States. In response the organization changed its name to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.[10][12][13] The group splintered fromHarkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), a Pakistani group formed in 1980 to fight the Soviet military in Afghanistan.[8] TheGovernment of India has declared and banned HuM as a jihad organisation.[4]
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen was originally formed as a splinter group of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami in 1985.[13] In 1989, at the end ofSoviet–Afghan war, the group enteredKashmiri politics by use of militants under the leadership ofSajjad Afghani and Muzaffar Ahmad Baba Alias Mukhtar. In 1993 the groupmerged with Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami to formHarkat-ul-Ansar.[13]
Immediately following the mergerIndia arrested three senior members: Nasrullah Mansur Langaryal, chief of the former Harkat-ul Mujahideen in November 1993;Maulana Masood Azhar, General Secretary in February 1994, andSajjad Afghani (Sajjad Sajid) in the same month inSrinagar. Muzaffar Ahmad Baba was killed in an encounter at Pandan Nowhatta with theBSF in January 1994.[citation needed]
As a response the group carried out severalkidnappings in an attempt to free their leaders, all of which failed. It was linked to the Kashmiri groupal-Faran that kidnapped five Western tourists in Kashmir in July 1995; one,Hans Christian Ostrø, was killed in August 1995 and the other four reportedly were killed in December of the same year.
In 1997, theUnited States designated Harkat-ul-Ansar as a terrorist organization, and in response it renamed itself to Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.[13]
In 1999, Sajjad was killed during a jailbreak which led to the hijacking, by the group, ofIndian Airlines Flight 814 in December, which led to the release ofMaulana Masood Azhar,Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh andMushtaq Ahmed Zargar by the Indian Government. Azhar did not, however, return to the HUM, choosing instead to form theJaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), a rival militant group expressing a more radical line than the HUM, in early 2000.
The group again came to the attention of the US after the9/11 attacks, leading PresidentGeorge W. Bush to ban the group, this time under its Harkat-ul-Mujahideen moniker, on 25 September 2001.[13]
The long-time leader of the group,Fazlur Rehman Khalil, in mid-February 2000 stepped down as HUMemir, turning the reins over to the popular Kashmiri commander and his second-in-command, Farooq Kashmiri. Khalil assumed the position of HUM Secretary General.
HUM is thought to have several thousand-armed supporters located in Pakistani Kashmir, and India's southern Kashmir and Doda regions. It uses light and heavy machine guns, assault rifles, mortars, explosives, and rockets. HUM lost some of its membership due to defections to the Jaish-e-Mohammed.
The group is based inMuzaffarabad,Rawalpindi, and several other towns in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but members conduct insurgent and terrorist activities primarily in Kashmir.
The group's current leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, lives openly in theIslamabad suburb ofGolra Sharif. He has denied having any contact with Osama bin Laden.[14]
According toThe New York Times, Osama Bin Laden's seized cellphones attest Harkat-ul-Mujahideen's continued contact with Osama Bin Laden and its bases and fighters shared with theTaliban over the years following thewar in Afghanistan.[9]
Since, the formation ofJaish-e-Mohammed, the group suffered both in leadership and cadre strength with most of funding and weapons diverted to the new outfit.[15]
The countries and organizations below have officially listed the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) as a terrorist organization.
| Country | Date | References |
 Bahrain | [2] | |
 Canada | 27 November 2002 | [3] |
| India | [16] | |
 United Kingdom | 14 October 2005 | [17] |
 United States | 25 September 2001 | [6] |
Harkat ul-Ansar (HuA) was anIslamic terrorist organization founded byAbdelkader Mokhtari in 1993. It was the result of a merger between Harkat-ul-Mujahideen andHarkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). Many of its operations were conducted inJammu and Kashmir.[18][19]
Soon after its founding, several members of its leadership were arrested byIndian Security Forces. In November 1993, the former head of HuM, Nasrullah Mansur Langrayal, was arrested.[citation needed] In February 1994, the HuA general secretary,Maulana Masood Azhar and chief commander,Sajjad Afghani, were captured in the Chattargul area ofAnantnag district.[19]
It was labeled a terrorist organization in 1997 by theUnited States because of its connections withSaudi terroristOsama bin Laden.[18][20] The ban severely limited the funding of the group, and as a result HuA was reorganized as a reincarnated Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. At the time, Azhar split from the group to formJaish-e-Mohammed.[18][21] In 1998, U.S.'sCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its report stated, "HuA, an Islamic terrorist organisation that Pakistan supports in its proxy war against Indian forces in Kashmir, increasingly is using terrorist tactics against Westerners and random attacks on civilians that could involve Westerners to promote its pan-Islamic agenda." CIA also stated that Hua had abducted at least 13 persons, of which 12 were from western countries in the period from early 1994 to 1998.[22][23]
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