- Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami ( _ar. حركة الجهاد الإسلامي, meaning The Islamic Holy War Movement) (HuJI) is a
Sunni Islamic fundamentalist paramilitary organization most active in South Asian countries ofPakistan ,Bangladesh andIndia since the early 1990s. It was banned in Bangladesh in2005 , and was labeled a terrorist organization by theUnited States in the late 1990s. [Waliur Rahman. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4350752.stm 'Dhaka outlaws third Islamic group'] "BBC News", October 17, 2005]History
HuJI or HJI was formed in 1984 by Fazalur Rehman Khalil and
Qari Saifullah Akhtar , as the first Pakistan-based jihadist outfit, during theSoviet-Afghan War ."Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam" by Zahid Hussain, Columbia University Press, 2007, page 71.] Khalil later broke away to form his own groupHarkat-ul-Ansar (HuA), which later emerged as the most feared militant organization in Kashmir. This group would later re-form asHarkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), when HuA was banned by the United States in 1997.HuJI first limited its operations in Afghanistan to defeating the Communists, but after the Soviets retreated, the organization exported jihad to the Indian state of
Jammu and Kashmir under the patronage of ISI and the Pakistani establishment.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/JK_may_see_fresh_influx_of_bomb-makers_/articleshow/3480966.cms] HuJI's footprint was extended to Bangladesh when the Bangladesh unit was established in 1992, with direct assistance fromOsama bin Laden .Sudha Ramachandran. [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FL10Df06.html 'PART 2: Behind the Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami'] "Asia Times Online", December 10, 2004]Ideology
HuJI, along with other paramilitary organizations such as
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), HuM, andJaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) emerged from the same source, and therefore had similar motivations and goals."Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam" by Zahid Hussain, Columbia University Press, 2007, page 52.] However, HuJI and HuM were both strongly backed by theTaliban , and therefore the group professedTaliban -style fundamentalist Islam. HuJI espoused a Pan-Islamic ideology, but it believed in violent means to liberate Kashmir and make it a part of Pakistan.Composition
The group recruited some of its cadres from the Deobandi madrassas of the
North-West Frontier Province , however the ethnic composition changed when the recruitment also began fromAzad Kashmir , Punjab andKarachi . Most of the recruits were jobless youths, who were searching for some meaning in their lives. Most of the inductions were done by the roaming jihadist cells, who lured the teenagers to so-called religious sermons imbued with the spirit of jihad, from where the process of induction began. Unlike LeT, HuJI did not require its cadres to go through religious education, rather the recruits proceeded to military training in the camps located in Afghanistan and Azad Kashmir.Plot to overthrow Benazir government
In September 1995, the group's connection with Islamist elements in
Pakistan Army when group's leaderSaifullah Akhtar was implicated in the right-wing coup plot. A customs guard inspection of a car outsideKohat revealed a huge arms cache hidden in the back. Subsequent investigations unearthed huge a conspiracy. Those weapons were directed to Islamist Army officers, Major GeneralZahirul Islam Abbasi , and Brigadier Mustansar Billah, who had plans to first overthrow the-then Army leadership at the next corps commander meeting and then bring Islamic revolution in the country by taking down theBenazir Bhutto government. Both generals conspired to eliminate the top military and civilian leadership and establish an 'Islamic dictatorship' in the country."Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam" by Zahid Hussain, Columbia University Press, 2007, page 72.]Activities in Bangladesh
After the group established its Bangladesh wing, the operations in Bangladesh increased, with the major source of recruitment coming from the Islamic
madrassa s. [ Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay and Haroon Habib. [http://www.flonnet.com/fl2301/stories/20060127006201100.htm 'Challenges in the east'] "Frontline magazine", January 17 - 23, 2006] The training for these recruits was given in the hilly areas ofChittagong andCox's Bazaar [John Wilson. [http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2369092 'The Roots of Extremism in Bangladesh'] "Terrorism Monitor", January 2005 issue, published by the "Jamestown Foundation"] .Later on, members of the group made an attempt on the life of
Shamsur Rahman , the liberal poet in January 1999. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/19/obituaries/19rahman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 'Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi Poet, Dies'] "The New York Times", August 19, 2006] Committed to establishing an Islamic rule [Sudha Ramachandran. [http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=334&language_id=1 'The Threat of Islamic Extremism to Bangladesh'] "PINR - Power and Interest News Report", July 27, 2005] , HuJI was the prime suspect in a scheme to assassinate thePrime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina in the year 2000, and has been blamed for a number of bombings in 2005. In October 2005, it was officially banned by the government of Bangladesh.Activities in India
In April 2006, the state police
Special Task Force inIndia uncovered a plot hatched by six HuJI terrorists, including the mastermind behind the2006 Varanasi bombings , involving the destruction of twoHindu temples in the Indian city ofVaranasi . Maps of their plans were recovered during their arrest. Pakistani passports had been in the possession of the arrested.Militant attacks claimed by or attributed to HuJI
Notes
Bibliography
* Zahid Hussain. "Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam", New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
* Hassan Abbas. "Pakistan's Drift Into Extremism: Allah, then Army, and America's War Terror", M.E. Sharpe, 2004.External links
* [http://www.espionageinfo.com/Gu-In/Harakat-ul-Jihad-I-Islami-Bangladesh-HUJI-B-Movement-of-Islamic-Holy-War.html Profile of HuJI-Bangladesh (HuJI-B)]
* [http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/huji.htm HuJI Profile on FAS.org]
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