United Jihad Council
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Also known as the Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC), this is a group created in the summer of 1994 by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence. It is a collection of thirteen leading organizations under Commander Manzur Shah, the leader of Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, the largest Jihad group operating in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The current spokesperson is Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. At the time, the sheer number of terrorist and jihadi organizations inside Pakistan made it difficult for the ISI to administer and manage centrally. This organization was created by Pakistan to unify and focus efforts of various terrorist groups in its covert war in Kashmir. This made distribution of resources like arms, ammunition, propaganda materials and communications more streamlined. It also made it easier to coordinate and pool resources of various jihadi groups to collect information, plan espionage and strike at targets of opportunity inside India.
The more prominent groups in the MJC/UJC include the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), the radical Islamic and pro-Pakistani groups Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Hizbollah, Harkat-ul-Ansar and Ikhwanul Muslimeen. Among the member organizations: Harakat-ul-Ansar, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Jihad, Al-Barq, Ikhwan-ul-Mussalmin, Tariq-ul-Mujahideen. By early 1999, as many as fifteen organizations were affiliated with the Council, though of these only five were considered influential: Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Badar and Tehrik-i-Jihad.
The United Jihad Council was puppeteered by Pakistan as the primary public voice of the Mujahideen in the Kargil offensive. Pakistan used the guerrillas with regular army personnel in a bid to change the cease-fire line through the territory. The United Jihad Council, including four other units fighting in the Kargil mountains said the guerrillas would not leave the area because it was their homeland. However they were forcibly evicted and it is believed that they suffered huge casualties as a result of Indian bombing. The subsequent Pakistani government pullback of its troops and allied Kashmiri secessionist and Taliban fighters from the Kargil-Dass-Batalik region of Indian-held Kashmir in July 1999 caused considerable criticism of the Pakistani government, and contributed to the military coup of October 1999.
It is fairly common even now for UJC/MJC members to frequently address public gatherings, publish jihadi propaganda and recruit new fighters. State patronage and protection from Pakistani security forces helps this free movement of men, materials and resources.
