Military Periscope :: Harakat ul-Mujahedin/Jamiat-ul-Ansar

Harakat ul-Mujahedin/Jamiat-ul-Ansar

Group Name:

Harakat ul-Mujahedin (HUM) was formerly known as the Harakat al-Ansar. The group changed its name again to Jamiat-ul-Ansar in 2001.

Location/Area of Operation:

HUM is based in Pakistan and operates primarily in Kashmir.

Stated Purpose:

One of the "Afghan alumni," HUM was originally organized to fight against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. However, it is now an international network of fighters for Islamic causes. According to the group, HUM's main objective is to continue the armed struggle against non-believers and "anti-Islamic forces." HUM also seeks Kashmir's accession to Pakistan.

Strength:

Harakat ul-Mujahedin has several hundred members in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan and in India's southern Kashmir and Doda regions. The group is mostly made up of Pakistanis and Kashmiris, but also includes Afghans and Arab veterans of the Afghan war. HUM lost much of it membership when Masood Azhar, an important leader of the former Harakat al-Ansar, formed the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM).

External Aid and Links:

The group is known to have received funding from within Saudi Arabia and other Gulf and Islamic states. Many individual Pakistanis and Kashmiris also support the group. As a member of Osama bin Laden's Islamic World Front, HUM likely receives funding from bin Laden and his various business fronts.

Activities:

HUM has conducted numerous attacks against Indian troops and civilian targets in Kashmir. The group has also participated in airline hijackings and murder.

Overview:

HUM, a predominantly Sunni group, is part of Osama bin Laden's "Islamic World Front for the Struggle against Jews and Crusaders" (Al-Jabhah al-Islamiyyah al-'Alamiyyah li-Qital al-Yahud wal-Salibiyyin). HUM began sending volunteers to Afghanistan just a few months after being established in central Punjab, Pakistan, in the early 1980s. The initial group of volunteers was trained in small arms and rifles, guerrilla warfare and explosives in Afghan training camps run by Jalaluddin Haqqani, the leader of the Hezb Islami (Khalis) Afghan Mujahedin group.

HUM subsequently set up its own training camps in the Miran Shah region, drawing recruits from Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the Indian areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Bangladesh, Burma and the Philippines. The group is also believed to have used training camps in Afghanistan that provided training to Al-Qaida recruits. Many of these camps in eastern Afghanistan were destroyed by coalition air strikes in 2001.

The HUM converted itself into an international network of Islamic fighters after the Taliban militia took over Afghanistan in 1992. The group changed its name from Harakat al-Ansar to Harakat ul-Mujahedin in 1997 to avoid repercussions of a U.S. ban.

A splinter group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), was formed by a former HUM leader in 2000.

HUM leader Fazal-ul-Rehman Khalil dissolved the group after it was banned by the U.S. and Pakistan in 2001. The group was subsequently reorganized under a new name – Jamiat-ul-Ansar.

Most experts believe Jamiat-ul-Ansar continues to engage in planning acts of violence to intimidate the governments of India and Pakistan, as well as conduct terrorist attacks against Western interests in Pakistan, with a view to furthering its political and religious objectives. However, JEM's formation severely impacted the group's operations, as many former HUM members flocked to the new group. Only isolated incidents involving Jamiat-ul-Ansar have been reported in Jammu and Kashmir.

Group Chronology:

1985

HUM was founded as a splinter group of Harakat ul-Jihad al-Islami and joined the Afghan war against Soviet occupation.

1992

April: HUM converted from an Afghan opposition group to an international network of Islamic fighters.

1993

HUM merged with Harakat ul-Jihad al-Islami to form Harakat al-Ansar.

November: Indian security forces arrested Harakat al-Ansar chief Nasrullah Mansur Langrayal.

1994

January: Two Indian security personnel were arrested and subsequently killed by the group in an attemped to secure Langrayal's release.

February: General Secretary Maulana Masood Azhar and Jammu and Kashmir unit chief Sajjad Afghani were arrested in Srinagar.

June: Group kidnapped two U.K. citizens in India, demanding that New Delhi turn over the captured commanders. One hostage was killed.

May: Militants conducted two raids in the Doda district. They stopped buses, forced the passengers off and then executed several of them.

October: In another attempt to secure the leaders' release, militants kidnapped four foreign tourists in New Delhi and held them in Uttar Pradesh. Indian forces launched a successful rescue and captured the leader, Umar Saeed Sheikh, a British student of Pakistani origin.

1995

July: Harakat al-Ansar was linked to a group called Al-Faran that took six Western hostages in another attempt to secure the leaders' release. The group killed one hostage in August and the other four in December. The sixth hostage escaped.

1997

Harakat al-Ansar was placed on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). To avoid the ban, the group recast itself as the Harakat ul-Mujahedin (HUM), a name it had previously used, the next year.

1998

February: Fazlur Rehman Khalil, one of the group's leaders, signed Osama bin Laden's fatwa (Islamic command) calling for attacks on the U.S. and other Western interests.

August: HUM suffered some casualties and a slight loss of operational ability after being hit with U.S. cruise missiles in retaliation for the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa by bin Laden's Al-Qaida network.

1999

June: Sajjad Afghani, HUM's Jammu and Kashmir unit chief who had been arrested in 1993, was killed during a jailbreak attempt at the Kot Lakhpat jail.

December: Suspected HUM members hijacked an Indian airliner en route from Nepal to India. The hijackers negotiated the release of Maulana Masood Azhar, Umar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtak Ahmed Zargar, commander of a Kashmir militant group called Al Umar. One passenger was stabbed to death.

2000
March: Following his release, Azhar created the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) terror group.

2001

September: Pakistan President Pervaiz Musharraf banned HUM. The U.S. also put the group on its list of foreign terrorist organizations. Khalil dissolved the group and subsequently re-established it under the name Jamiat-ul-Ansar.

2002

Jan. 23: Suspected Jamiat-ul-Ansar member Ahmad Omar Sheikh was involved in the abduction and killing of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, who wrote for the Wall Street Journal. He was sentenced to death in July 2002. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S., has also confessed to killing Pearl.

2003

September: Jamiat-ul-Ansar resumed fundraising activities in Pakistan.

Sept. 5: Khalil delivered a sermon at the Red Mosque in Islamabad calling on Muslims to participate in jihad and to observe the orders of Allah, not the United States.

November: Pakistan banned Jamiat-ul-Ansar.

2005

January: Reportedly under pressure from the government of Pakistan, long-time leader Fazlur Rehman Khalil stepped down and was replaced by Badr Munir.

June: Two American citizens were arrested for suspected participation in an Al-Qaida plot to attack the U.S. Both claimed to have attended a terrorist training camp run by Khalil.

2006

March 29: Unidentified gunmen abducted and assaulted Maulana Fazal-ul-Rehman Khalil, the leader of Jamiat-ul-Ansar. Khalil and his driver were praying outside the Pakistani capital of Islamabad when they were assaulted by eight armed men. The Jamiat-ul-Ansar leader and his driver were held hostage for about five hours and severely beaten before being dumped back on the roadside.

Nov. 2: Jamiat-ul-Ansar shot a former police officer accused of collaborating with a police operations group in Indian-administered Kashmir.

2007

Jan. 4: Jamiat-ul-Ansar members exchanged fire with Indian security forces

February: Jamiat-ul-Ansar has been linked to the kidnapping and subsequent beheading of a Hindu businessman in Pakistan's Sindh province.

2008

Jan. 20: Indian authorities released an alert based on recent intelligence indicating that Jamiat-ul-Ansar intended to make an attempt on Delhi's-high security jail to rescue militants connected to the 2000 Red Fort terrorist incident in Delhi (which involved the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba group) and the 2001 parliament attack. After the alert, there was no attack.

April 28: A senior group commander was gunned down by security personnel in the Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir.

June: JEM was said to be trying to reconcile with other Pakistan-based extremist groups, including HUM, to emphasize opposition to the U.S. presence in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

December: The United Jihad Council (UJC) in Pakistan quietly went underground due to the increased security following the deadly November attacks in Bombay (Mumbai), India. UJC leader Sayed Salahuddin is allegedly a HUM member. HUM uses the name Harakat al-Ansar within the council.

2009

Sept. 6: Security forces shot and killed a suspected Jamiat-ul-Ansar leader in the Baramulla district. Officials identified the suspect as Abu Umair, reportedly a Pakistani national who was suspected of participation in several militant incidents.

Oct. 16: Pakistani militants took 42 persons hostage at the military's general headquarters, prompting security forces to transport several militant leaders to the area to help with negotiations. Maulana Fazal-ul-Rehman Khalil of Jamiat-ul-Ansar and Mufti Abdul Rauf, brother of JEM leader Maulana Masood Azhar, were among those transported. Ultimately, Pakistani commandos stormed the building to free the hostages, resulting in 15 deaths.

Last Updated:

November 2009