By Amir Mir in the News, Feb 23
ISLAMABAD: Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, one of the three jehadis released by the Indian government in 1999 in exchange for the passengers of hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC 814, has decided to revive armed struggle against the Indian security forces in Jammu & Kashmir while using Azad Kashmir as the base camp of Al Umar Mujahideen (AuM).
His declaration is set to create further problems for the Pakistani security establishment, which is often accused of using terrorism as a state policy, given the fact that Zargar is an Indian national hailing from Srinagar.
Zargar, the supreme commander of a pro-Kashmir jehadi group Al Umar Mujahideen, who had been lying low in Muzaffarabad since his release, has decided to reactivate his group in the Indian occupied Kashmir in the aftermath of a Kashmiri militant Afzal Guru’s hanging by India early this month.
Describing reinvigorated armed struggle in J&K as the only solution to the Kashmir issue, Zargar has declared in recent interviews and statements that his goal is to liberate Jammu Kashmir through armed struggle. “In four months, India will see what Al-Umar Mujahideen are capable of doing. Kashmir will be merged with Pakistan and there is nothing India can do about it. Pakistan has always given us political, diplomatic and moral support and that’s enough. Regarding money, men and guns, we can get it from anywhere. We still run training centres on both sides of the Line of Control”.
Taking hints from his recent statements following Guru’s execution, the Indian media has already described the most wanted Zargar as the new Trojan horse of Pakistan’s jehadi factory and an ideal linchpin for the ISI in Kashmir given the fact that he is an indigenous Kashmiri coming from Srinagar’s Ghani Mohalla near Jamia Masjid. While sources in the Pakistani security establishment have expressed ignorance about Zargar’s presence in Azad Kashmir, it is believed that he had been living in Muzaffarabad since his 1999 release along with Maulana Masood Azhar and Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed. All the three were set free after Indian Airlines Flight IC-814 was hijacked by some Kashmiri militants who took it to Kandahar.
While Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Zargar continue to be sheltered in Pakistan despite repeated demands for their custody by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed has already been sentenced to death by a Karachi court for killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Zargar was the only Indian Kashmiri among the released trio. Known for his ruthlessness and his ability to plan stunning strikes, Zargar was motivated into militancy in 1984, but he became famous during the kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, daughter of the then home minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. Some three-dozen murder cases are registered against him in Srinagar. It was in August 1988 that he decided to abandon the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and crossed over to Pakistan for training, with a view to waging armed struggle back home.
He was welcomed in Muzaffarabad by jehadis and the intelligence establishment alike mainly because he was keen on liberation and wanted to merge Jammu & Kashmir with Pakistan. Having returned to Jammu Kashmir, Zargar launched Al-Umar Mujahideen in December 1989.
His handlers pumped money and material, enabing the group to plan and execute some of the most deadly terrorist strikes in the valley against the Indian security forces. Zargar was considered to be one of the most powerful jehadi figures of Srinagar till his arrest in 1993. He remained in Kot Balawal jail in Jammu till the then Indian government was compelled to escort him to freedom in Kandahar after the plane hijacking.
Almost 13 years later, Zargar has been pushed to revive his jehadi group in Jammu with a view to building up the pace and tempo of militant activity in Jammu & Kashmir which is apparently dying down in the valley. Zargar has declared recently: “Dialogue is a futile exercise and will not bear any fruit in future as well. Those who sing tunes of dialogue are living in darkness. By beating the drum of dialogue, India is keeping the world community in the dark. Nothing has been achieved through the dialogue process in six decades and nothing can be expected to come out from it in future as well. We will not allow the talks to take place. We will oppose the talks’ process with all might. And if necessary we will stop those who join the dialogue process, by force. Kashmir problem can only be solved by implementing the UN resolutions”.
Apart from the Syed Salahuddin-led Hizbul Mujahideen (HuM), Al-Umar Mujahideen is the only other jehadi organisation which is led by Jammu & Kashmir-based militants. Zargar is widely believed to be headquartered in the Narul area of Muzaffargarh while his cadres are active in Srinagar, Baramulla, Kupwara and Pulwama districts of Jammu and Kashmir. Al-Umar Mujahideen is a member of the Muzaffarabad-based United Jehad Council, a 15-member conglomerate led by Pir Syed Salahuddin.
However, when approached for comments, a well-placed official in the security establishment refuted that the Pakistani agencies have anything to do with Zargar or his latest plans to revive armed struggle against the Indian security forces in Jammu & Kashmir. While disowning Zargar, the official cited a recent interview published by an Indian Weekly (Tehelka) wherein the Kashmiri militant leader has described the terrorist activities of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) as a holy jehad. http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-161672-Mushtaq-Zargar-%E2%80%94-a-new-pawn-on-Jihadi-chessboard
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