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'We are fighting for the supremacy of Islam'

Following the abduction of foreign tourists in Kashmir in 1995 and the detention of four of them as hostages, one of whom was an American national, the demand was made in the US for declaring Harkat-ul-Ansar, whose small outfit Al Faran was alleged to be responsible for it, as a terrorist organisation under the law. Pressed from all sides, the Clinton administration was forced to declare the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Ansar, LTTE and 28 other organisations in different countries, as terrorists under this law.

In Washington, on October, 1997, secretary of state Madeleine Albright announced at a press conference the banning of 30 such organisations. She said their goal was to "make the United States a fully no-support-for-terrorism zone." In a statement President Clinton said, "Now we will work to uncover those who raise money for (such groups) in America and encourage our friends and allies to do the same within their own borders." He further said, "Today's action sends a clear message. The path to change is through dialogue and open deliberation, not violence and hatred." The notification under this law will expire after two years unless renewed.

Harkat-ul-Ansar expectedly reacted strongly. From Islamabad it issued a statement on October 9, which refuted that it was a terrorist organisation. Pakistan's ISI continued to support HUA despite this ban.

With life returning fast to normal in Srinagar and large numbers of tourists coming to Kashmir in May, 1998, the HUA reportedly received directions from the other side of the LOC to disrupt life by serial detonation in different parts of the city. On May 28, on being tipped off, the police raided a well-camouflaged hideout in the downtown area and recovered large quantities of explosives, IEDs, detonators, remote control devices, cordex wire and battery charges.

The Hurriyat activists had been going round claiming that the umbrella organisation represented all underground and overground secessionist organisations. The Harkat-ul-Ansar was forced to refute this claim. On June 4, 1998, the HUA chief, in a statement declared that the HUA had nothing to do with APHC. The statement said the HUA did not believe in politics. "We are fighting for the supremacy of Islam. We ask people in so-called politics and so-called militant outfits to work within Islamic limits or face the consequences. The ongoing movement is not a secular war but has been launched for freedom and Islamisation," the statement declared.

For a long time it had been known that cadres of the Harkat-ul-Ansar received advance training in Afghanistan in camps at Khost and in the Jalalabad province. When US missiles targeted Bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan, three were such where Kashmiri militants were trained. Reports from Islamabad on August 22, 1998, identified the commandant of the HUA camps as a Pakistani national, Saiful Islam Akhtar, who had "produced hundreds of Mujahideen" for operations in Kashmir. Early reports from Islamabad had mentioned seven Harkat activists killed in the US strike. However, on August 27, a leading Kashmiri militant at Srinagar confirmed that at least 24 Kashmiri trainees had been killed in the missile attack. Saifullah Khalid, deputy chief of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, alleged in a statement that "the Government of India carried the missile attacks through USA." The Washington Times, on September 6, reported that the Harkat camps in Afghanistan were the worst sufferers in the US attack. According to it, the HUA's Al Badr camp received 11 missile hits. The report was sent by Pakistani journalist Rahimullah Yousafzai after he visited the camp.

Wanting to have as tight a control as possible, the ISI was reported in September, 1998, to have floated a new outfit, Harkat-ul-Jehad Islamee Tanzeem. It was soon known that elements from the Harkat-ul-Ansar and some from the Lashkar-I-Toiba were brought into it with the specified task of engineering communal disturbances in Jammu and Kashmir as also other parts of India. In the meantime, to bypass the US ban on Harkat-ul-Ansar, the ISI renamed it as Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Indications were available in Kashmir that this management did not go down well with Kashmiri elements in the HUA. The ISI, it seems, decided not to press this point beyond a point. The HUA therefore continued to function as before.

The HUA chief in Kashmir was Mohammad Yousaf Chowhan who was in reality the Imam of the Khalifapura Masjid in Srinagar. He operated under a number of code-names like Mohammed Shafi, Molvi, Younis, etc. Before he became the Harkat chief, he was the chairman of the HUA executive and represented it in the Shoora-I-Jehad council. On November 7, 1998, the Kashmir police's SOG arrested him from the Khanyar locality in downtown Srinagar.

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Excerpted from Kashmir Underground by Sati Sahni, 1999, Har-Anand Publications, 520 pages, Rs 595, with the publisher's permission.

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