Hizbul Mujahideen founded by Ahsan Dar in 1989, is a Kashmiri militant group active in the Indian state of
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
since 1989. Their headquarters are located in
MuzaffarabadMuzaffarabad is the capital of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Pakistan. It is located in Muzaffarabad District on the banks of the Jhelum and Neelum rivers...
, the capital of
Pakistan-administered KashmirAzad Kashmir borders the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north west, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of People's Republic of China to the north and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, to the east.A...
. It is believed the group al-Badr, derived from Hizbul Mujahideen in early 1998 was encouraged by the
Inter-Services IntelligenceThe Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
of Pakistan. The current leader of the group is a Kashmiri known under the alias of
Sayeed SalahudeenSyed Salahudeen or Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah, is the head of the Hizbul Mujahideen, militant outfit in Kashmir and head of an alliance of Kashmiri militant organizations, the Muttahida Jihad Council, that supports the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir's accession to Pakistan...
. Hizbul Mujahideen is currently the largest militant group operating in
KashmirKashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, and is widely considered by the sources on both sides of the Kashmir conflict to be the most indigenous and widely-supported group active in Kashmir.
Sayeed SalahudeenSyed Salahudeen or Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah, is the head of the Hizbul Mujahideen, militant outfit in Kashmir and head of an alliance of Kashmiri militant organizations, the Muttahida Jihad Council, that supports the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir's accession to Pakistan...
is at present located in Pakistan. The media often reports his whereabouts in Pakistan occupied Kashmir or in Northern Punjab.
The Indian government has time and again requested the Pakistani government for the extradition of
Sayeed SalahudeenSyed Salahudeen or Syed Mohammed Yusuf Shah, is the head of the Hizbul Mujahideen, militant outfit in Kashmir and head of an alliance of Kashmiri militant organizations, the Muttahida Jihad Council, that supports the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir's accession to Pakistan...
. However in recent times a well known news agency conducted an interview with the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen, where the leader claimed that the government of Pakistan would never hand him over to the Indian authorities.
Although Sayeed Salahudeen is a citizen of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, he is known to have resided in towns located around important cities like Karachi and Peshawar, sources claim that this pattern is followed for two main reasons,
1) Many sources claim that Hizbul Mujahideen leader maintains continuous contact with the Intelligence agency of Pakistan, ISI. These towns are used as meeting places where important information regarding Kashmir switches hands along with funding required to conduct militant training camps.
2) Although the Indian parliament has not sanctioned covert operations across the LOC, the constant fear of a covert raid by the Indian Special Forces, deters Sayeed Salahudeen from entering Pakistan occupied Kashmir frequently.
External links
- Profile: Hizbul Mujahideen GlobalSecurity.org
GlobalSecurity.org, launched in 2000, is a public policy organization focusing on the fields of defense, space exploration, intelligence, weapons of mass destruction and homeland security...
- Official Journal of the European Union: Terrorism list
- Congressional Report: The New Islamist International(from FAS
The Federation of American Scientists is a nonpartisan, 501 organization intent on using science and scientific analysis to attempt make the world more secure. FAS was founded in 1945 by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bombs...
site) Bill McCollumIra William "Bill" McCollum, Jr. is a former Florida Attorney General. A Republican, he was Florida's 36th attorney general, taking office in 2007...
, United States House of Representatives, Republican Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, 1 February 1993
- BBC Reports:Militants arrested in Bombay
- ABC Live Reports: Hizbul Mujahideen claimed Blast Left 1 Killed And 22 injured In Jammu Kashmir