Hizbul Mujahedin, Jameet-e-Islami (political wing)
Aliases: Al Badr

Hizbul Mujahedin seeks to unify Indian- and Pakistani-administered areas of Kashmir and establish an Islamic state with sharia law that would be annexed by Pakistan.

The group is currently estimated to have between several hundred and 1,500 members in Kashmir, drawn from both Kashmiri fighters and foreign mercenaries. In the 1990s, Hizbul Mujahedin was believed to have had over 10,000 fighters, but Indian pressure and internecine disputes have decimated the group.

Hizbul Mujahedin was formed with the support of Pakistan. Islamabad continued to support the group until the late 1990s, when Jamaat-e-Islami lost favor with the government of President Pervaiz Musharraf.

The group has maintained links with Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-I Islami. Hizbul Mujahedin trained with Hekmatyar's group in Afghanistan before the Taliban took control.

Most of Hizbul Mujahedin’s support comes from Jamaat-e-Islami, as well as through extortion and other criminal activities in Pakistan and Kashmir.

Hizbul Mujahedin primarily targets the Indian military in Indian-administered Kashmir. The group has also killed high-profile religious and secular leaders.

Current operations are believed to be carried out on an ad hoc basis by cells operating independently, due to the pressure placed on the senior leaders by Indian security forces.

The Hizbul Mujahedin was founded in 1989 by Master Ahsan Dar as the militant wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami political faction. Pakistani intelligence encouraged the formation of the group to counter the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), which had abandoned a pro-Pakistan stance and had begun to fight for outright independence for Kashmir.

The Hizbul Mujahedin is believed to have fallen out of favor with Islamabad in the late 1990s, due to a strained relationship between Jamaat-e-Islami and the government. Pakistan publicly distanced itself from the group following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. All supplies and training apparently ended in 2004.

The group is one of the largest and most powerful in Kashmir, though fighting with rival groups and among its own factions has limited its potency. The group finds itself out of favor with many Kashmiris because were it to assume control, its strict Islamic policies would ban movies, cable television, women's beauty shops and alcohol.

Since 1991, the group has been led by Mohammed Yusuf Shah (also known as Syed Salahuddin or Pir Sahib).

The combination of a major crackdown on militants from 2007 through early 2009, as well as the ascendency of other terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, has impaired HM. The anti-terrorist enforcement activities were bolstered in August 2008 when India’s national security office offered more assistance to regional security forces in Kashmir.

1989
Al Badr was founded by Master Ahsan Dar with encouragement and support from the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). The name was shortly thereafter changed to Hizbul Mujahedin.

1991
Hizbul Mujahedin Supreme Advisory Council was established. Mohammed Yusuf Shah was named supreme leader.

2000
July: Hizbul Mujahedin announced a short-lived unilateral cease-fire against India.

2002
May 4: Shah replaced Abdul Majid Dar as chief operational commander with Saif-ul-Islam. Dar and several commanders loyal to him were expelled.

2003
March 23: Dar was killed by unknown assailants in the town of Sopore in northern Kashmir. Dar's death sparked factional fighting among Hizbul Mujahedin members, specifically between foreign and native Kashmiri groups.

April 2: Saif-ul-Islam, HM's chief commander of operations, was killed by Indian security forces. He was later replaced by Ghazi Nasiruddin.

April: The U.S. State Dept. placed Hizbul Mujahedin on its terrorist organization watch list.

2004
January: New commander Nasiruddin was killed by Indian forces. Ghazi Shahabuddin succeeded him as operational commander.

May 7: Indian forces killed Shahabuddin. Ghazi Misbahuddin was named operational commander.

May 24: A land mine exploded under a bus carrying Indian border guards and their families in Indian-administered Kashmir. Fifteen people were injured and 33 killed. Hizbul Mujahedin claimed responsibility, saying the attack was carried out to avenge the deaths of some of its senior commanders.

June: Commander Abdul Latif surrendered to Indian authorities.

2005
June 13: A car bomb exploded in the Indian-controlled Kashmir town of Pulwama, killing at least 15 people and injuring 100. Hizbul Mujahedin was one of two groups blamed.

December: The European Union added Hizbul Mujahedin to its list of terrorist organizations.

2006
July 11: Hizbul Mujahedin was one of two organizations accused of a series of train bombings that killed over 200 in Bombay. The group denied any involvement.

Nov. 29: Muhammad Yusuf Shah (Syed Salahuddin) declared his willingness to reach a truce with India if three conditions were met – the release of all prisoners, cessation of human-rights violations and a reduction in troop strength in the region. This new stance contrasted with the leader's previous criticism of any negotiation with India.

2007
Feb. 17: A Hizbul Mujahedin commander, Ali Mohd Dandi, and his bodyguard, Bashir Ahmed, were killed by security forces in the Udhampur district.

March 1: Another Hizbul Mujahedin commander, Mohd Yasin, was killed by Indian security forces. He led the Pir Panjal division, one of the group's five divisions.

May: Indian security forces arrested Ghulam Hassan Mir, one of the most-wanted Hizbul Mujahedin commanders. He had been active in the group for over 18 years.

Aug. 1: Local intelligence led security forces to a HM hideout in the Doda district. During the ensuing skirmish an HM divisional commander was killed. The commander, from the Punjab region of Pakistan, had been involved with HM for almost 20 years and had coordinated military and financial support activities.

Aug. 11: The Khandroo Field Ordnance Depot, the largest Indian ammunition depot in Kashmir, was burned down. Hizbul Mujahedin claimed responsibility.

Oct. 11: HM claimed responsibility for an improvised explosive device (IED) that killed seven people and wounded six others at a military camp in Hamray. Militants said they planted the IED inside a liquefied petroleum gas cylinder that was carried into the camp along with several refills; it was then remotely detonated. The dead included five soldiers and two civilians. Military sources, however, said the blast was an accident.

Dec. 25: The government reported that 12 HM militants, including two divisional commanders, surrendered to the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. A large cache of arms and ammunition also was recovered. An official said that the militants would be rehabilitated into the "mainstream" as part of a government program. He added that the surrender resulted from "confidence-building" measures undertaken by the central and state governments in the region.

Dec. 26: Government officials reported that HM militants incurred major losses in 2007 as a result of clashes with security forces. HM reportedly suffered the most out of 13 terrorist groups being pursued by the government in Jammu and Kashmir, losing 34 top commanders and 307 cadres in various gun battles. One official observed that HM's back had been broken and that many HM militants had gone into hiding.

2008
Jan. 30: Police killed four HM militants, including a regional commander, in Batpora. Officials said the Kulgam district in south Kashmir had thus become a "militancy-free" zone.

April: During an especially active month of counter-terrorism activity, security forces killed or captured a significant number of HM militants and commanders. Two HM militants, one a local financial chief, were killed in the Baramulla district. A police official reported that the arrest of another militant in Srinagar and the killing of two militants in Handwara essentially eliminated the HM presence in the Handwara district. An HM area commander surrendered to police in Doda, where 12 other militants reportedly surrendered during a two-month period.

April 15: Seven HM militants abducted and beat an accused informer in the Rajouri district.

April 20: Police reported that Sabzar Ahmad Waza (alias Basharat), a top HM militant, was arrested while attempting flight from the Kashmir Valley. Waza had crossed over to the Pakistani side of the border in 1992 and returned to the valley in 2000 after receiving training in Pakistan. He was sought in connection with several militant actions.

June 14: Security personnel apprehended three HM militants shortly after they reached Indian territory from Pakistan in the Samba district. Weapons and funds were seized.

July 19: HM reportedly blew up a bus transporting security forces, killing 10 soldiers and injuring 18 others. The bombing occurred at Narbal Crossing near Srinagar.

July 24: HM militants entered a home in the Bari Marmat village and killed four family members of a former HM colleague, who had surrendered in 2002 and was providing information to security forces.

Oct. 23: HM militants attacked a village meeting in Panchayat, killing one person and injuring another. One of the militants was killed in the encounter.

Nov. 8: Army and local police, conducting separate counter-insurgency operations, killed eight militants associated with HM and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT).

Nov. 9: HM militants were blamed for setting fire to the house of a police official in the Reasi district.

Dec. 13: The terrorist attacks in Bombay, India, on Nov. 26, shut down activities by the United Jihad Council in Pakistan, an umbrella group representing militant groups such as HM and LeT. The move followed the United Nations' condemnation of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa terrorist group, which is associated with LeT. The U.N. suspected there was a link between LeT and the Bombay attack.

2009
Jan. 14: The former head and founder of Hizbul Mujahideen was arrested by police near Srinagar. Mohammad Ahsan Dar was arrested in a raid the Bandipora district while he was attempting to secretly enter Sumbal. Dar had parted company with the HM in 1992, but remained in contact with current HM leader Syed Salahuddin. In recent years, Dar reportedly coordinated activities of several militant groups and was believed to have had the support of Pakistani agencies.