Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami

Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Arabic: حركة الجهاد الإسلامي‎, Ḥarkat al-Jihād al-Islāmiyah, meaning "Islamic Struggle Movement", HuJI) is an Islamic fundamentalist organisation 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 killed in a U.S. Predator drone strike in South Waziristan on 4 June 2011.^[1] He was linked to the 13 February 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] A local Taliban commander named Shah Sahib was named as Kashmiri's successor.^[3]

History

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.^[4] Khalil later broke away to form his own group Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA), which later emerged as the most feared militant organisation in Kashmir.^{[citation needed]} This group would later re-form as Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), when HuA was banned by the United States in 1997.^[4]

HuJI first limited its operations in Afghanistan to defeating the Communists, but after the Soviets retreated, the organisation 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.^[5]

Ideology

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.^[6] 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.^[4]

Composition

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.^[4]

Plot to overthrow Benazir government

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.^[7]

Activities in Bangladesh

After the group established its Bangladesh wing, the operations in Bangladesh increased, with the major source of recruitment coming from the Islamic madrassas.^[5][8] The training for these recruits was given in the hilly areas of Chittagong and Cox's Bazaar.^[5][9] Later on, members of the group made an attempt on the life of Shamsur Rahman, the liberal poet in January 1999.^[10] HuJi claimed their responsibility of 2001 Ramna Batamul bombings, where 10 people were dead. A member of suicide squad of HuJi also died. Committed to establishing an Islamic rule,^[11] 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.

Activities in India

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 the lives of 10 and has injured around 60.^[12] 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.^[13]

16 arrested thought to be linked with HUJI in the southern part of India. The Indian police at currently interrogating them.

2011 Delhi bombing

Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami has claimed responsibility for the 2011 Delhi bombing. However, this has not been confirmed by the National Investigation Agency.^[14][15]

14 people were killed and 94 people were injured in the bomb blast. Police have released two sketches of the suspects.^[16] Here is the Embedded video link for this latest attack. This link has English news video clip.^[17] This is in Hindi Language.^[18] Also as clear in the video links, they have also made threats to target other Indian cities.

Designation as a terrorist organisation

Several governments have proscribed HuJI as a terrorist organisation.

In October 2005, Bangladesh banned the militant group.^[19]

On 6 August 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.^[20][21]

Militant attacks claimed by or attributed to HuJI

Notes

External links

• Profile of HuJI-Bangladesh (HuJI-B)
• HuJI Profile on FAS.org