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| Courtesy: Tehelka |
By Amir Mir
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.
(Amir Mir's above opinion
piece appeared in the print edition of The News, Pakistan on February 23)
