Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Arabic: حركة الجهاد الإسلامي, Ḥarkat al-Jihād al-Islāmiyah, meaning "Islamic Struggle Movement", HuJI) is an Islamic fundamentalist organization most active in South Asian countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India since the early 1990s. It was banned in Bangladesh in 2005. The operational commander of HuJI, Ilyas Kashmiri, was reportedly killed in a U.S. Predator drone strike in South Waziristan on June 4, 2011.[1] He was linked to the February 13, 2010 bombing of a German bakery in the Indian city of Pune. A statement was released soon after the attack which claimed to be from Kashmiri; it threatened other cities and major sporting events in India.[2]
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HuJI or HJI was formed in 1984 by Fazalur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Akhtar, as the first Pakistan-based jihadist, during the Soviet-Afghan War.[3] Khalil later broke away to form his own group Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA), which later emerged as the most feared militant organization in Kashmir. This group would later re-form as Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), when HuA was banned by the United States in 1997.[3]
HuJI first limited its operations in Afghanistan to defeating the Communists, but after the Soviets retreated, the organization exported jihad to the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. HuJI's footprint was extended to Bangladesh when the Bangladesh unit was established in 1992, with direct assistance from Osama bin Laden.[4]
HuJI, along with other jehadi groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), HuM, and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) emerged from the same source, and therefore had similar motivations and goals.[5] However, HuJI and HuM were both strongly backed by the Taliban, and therefore the group professed Taliban-style fundamentalist Islam. HuJI espoused a Pan-Islamic ideology, but it believed in violent means to liberate Kashmir and make it a part of Pakistan.[3]
The group recruited some of its cadres from the Deobandi madrassas of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, however the ethnic composition changed when the recruitment also began from Azad Kashmir, Punjab and Karachi. Most of the inductions were done by the roaming jihadist cells, who lured the teenagers religious sermons imbued with the spirit of jihad, from where the process of induction began. Unlike LeT, HuJI did not require its cadres to go through religious education, rather the recruits proceeded to military training in the camps located in Afghanistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.[3]
In September 1995, the group was connected with Islamist elements in the Pakistan Army when the group's leader Saifullah Akhtar was implicated in the right-wing coup plot. A customs guard inspection of a car outside Kohat revealed a huge arms cache hidden in the back. Subsequent investigations unearthed a conspiracy. Those weapons were directed to Islamist Army officers, Major General Zahirul Islam Abbasi, and Brigadier Mustansar Billah, who had plans to first overthrow the-then Army leadership at the next corps commander meeting and then bring Islamic revolution in the country by taking down the Benazir Bhutto government. Both generals conspired to eliminate the top military and civilian leadership and establish an 'Islamic dictatorship' in the country.[6]
After the group established its Bangladesh wing, the operations in Bangladesh increased, with the major source of recruitment coming from the Islamic madrassas.[4][7] The training for these recruits was given in the hilly areas of Chittagong and Cox's Bazaar.[4][8]
Later on, members of the group made an attempt on the life of Shamsur Rahman, the liberal poet in January 1999.[9] Committed to establishing an Islamic rule,[10] HuJI was the prime suspect in a scheme to assassinate the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina in the year 2000, and has been blamed for a number of bombings in 2005. In October 2005, it was officially banned by the government of Bangladesh.
In April 2006, the state police Special Task Force in India uncovered a plot hatched by six HuJI terrorists, including the mastermind behind the 2006 Varanasi bombings, involving the destruction of two Hindu temples in the Indian city of Varanasi. Maps of their plans were recovered during their arrest. Pakistani passports had been in the possession of the arrested. Apparently Huji has claimed the responsibility for the blasts in New Delhi high court which has claimed lifes of 10 and has injured around 60.[11]. Vikar Ahmed, a member of a right-wing Islamic group, and connected to HuJI, has been accused of murdering police officers in Hyderabad. He is also a suspect in the Meecca Masjid bombing[12]
Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami has claimed responsibility for the 2011 Delhi bombing. However, this has not been confirmed by the National Investigation Agency.[13][14]
14 people were killed and 94 people were injured in the bomb blast. Police have released two sketches of the suspects.[15] Here is the Embedded video link for this latest attack. This link has English news video clip. [16] This is in Hindi Language.[17] Also as clear in the video links, they have also made threats to target other Indian cities.
Several governments have proscribed HuJI as a terrorist organization.
In October 2005, Bangladesh banned the militant group.[18]
On August 6, 2010 the United States and the United Nations designated Harakat-ul Jihad al-Islami as a foreign terror group and blacklisted its commander Ilyas Kashmiri. State Department counterterrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin asserted that the actions taken demonstrated the global community's resolve to counter the group's threat. "The linkages between HUJI and Al-Qaeda are clear, and today's designations convey the operational relationship between these organizations," Benjamin said.[19][20]
| Date | Country | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Bangladesh | Failed attempt to assassinate the humanist poet Shamsur Rahman |
| 2000 | Bangladesh | Alleged failed scheme to assassinate the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina |
| 2001 April 14 | Bangladesh | Pahela Baishakh attack on Ramna Batamul |
| 2003 | India | Role in Assassination of the former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya. |
| 2002 January | India | Terror attack near the American Centre in Kolkata, executed in collaboration with the Dawood-linked mafioso Aftab Ansari |
| 2005 June | India | Bombing of the Delhi-Patna Shramjeevi Express at Jaunpur |
| 2005 | India | Suicide bombing of the headquarters of the Andhra Pradesh Police's counter-terrorism Special Task Force. A Bangladeshi national, Mohatasin Bilal, had carried out the bombing |
| March 2006 | Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India | Bombing of the Sankat Mochan temple, which was traced to HuJI's Bangladesh-based cells |
| August 25, 2007 | Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India | 25 August 2007 Hyderabad bombings (suspected, but no evidence revealed as of early September) |
| May 13, 2008 | Jaipur, Rajasthan, India | 13 May 2008 Jaipur bombings (suspected; evidence pending.) |
| July 25, 2008 | Bangalore, India | 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts (suspected; evidence pending.) |
| July 26, 2008 | Ahmadabad, India | 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts (suspected; evidence pending.) |
| September 13, 2008 | Delhi, India | 2008 Delhi serial blasts (suspected; evidence pending.) |
| September 20, 2008 | Islamabad, Pakistan | 2008 Marriott Hotel bombing (claimed by HuJI; evidence pending.) |
| October 1, 2008 | Agartala, Tripura, India | 2008 Agartala bombings (HuJI suspected; evidence pending.) |
| October 30, 2008 | Guwahati, Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, India | 2008 Assam bombings (HuJI suspected; evidence pending.) |
| September 7, 2011 | New Delhi, India | 2011 Delhi bombing (claimed by HuJI; evidence pending.) |