Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen is a
Pakistani Islamist terrorist group. It was established in
1985 initially opposing the
Soviet presence in
Afghanistan. The founders of the group had splintered from
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami.
It claims to be a
Jihadi organisation "with the prime objective of providing awareness with regard to Jihad". It is an anti-
Hindu organisation.
In
1989, at the end of
Soviet-Afghan war, the group entered
Kashmiri politics by use of
Mujahideen under the leadership of
Sajjad Afghani Shaheed. In
1993 the group
merged with Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami to form
Harkat-ul-Ansar. Immediately following the merger
India arrested three senior members:
Nasrullah Mansur Langrayal, chief of the former Harkat-ul Mujahideen in November
1993; Maulana Masood Azhar, General Secretary in February
1994 and Sajjad Afghani Shaheed in the same month in
Srinagar.
As a response the group carried out several
kidnappings in an attempt to free their leaders, all of which failed. In
1997 the group renamed itself to the original Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, in a response to the
United States defining Harkat-ul-Ansar as terrorist organization. In
1999 Sajjad was killed during a jailbreak leading to the hijacking, by the group of
Indian Airlines Flight 814 in December, which caused the release of
Maulana Masood Azhar,
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and
Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar. The group has since not committed any major incidents. The group again came to the attention of the US after the
9/11 terrorist attacks, leading President
George W. Bush to ban the group on
September 25,
2001.
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Information about the group on South Asia Terrorism Portal*
Pro-HUM website
