Hizb-ul-Mujahideen

Hizb-ul-Mujahideen is one of the largest militant Muslim groups operating in the disputed territories of Jammu and Kashmir—both of which are claimed by India and Pakistan. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen supports the integration of Jammu and Kashmir into Pakistan, a Muslim country where the group is headquartered. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen is unusual among Muslim groups in that many of its members are native Kashmiris, rather than foreign militants. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has been linked to the vicious massacres of non-Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir in 1998 and 2000. Although the group has continued to embrace violence, it has more recently reached brief cease-fires with India.

Hizb-ul-Mujahideen was founded in the late 1980s as a militant wing of Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic political party. The group was reportedly backed by Pakistan's intelligence agency as a counterforce to the secular, pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen members received training in terrorist camps in Afghanistan.

For years, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen operated as a sort of a local intelligence wing, assisting other militant Muslim groups whose members were largely foreign. The group attacked both Indian forces and pro-independence Kashmiri groups, especially the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. Eventually Hizb-ul-Mujahideen became linked with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a radical Muslim group known for extremism and violence. Hizb-ul-Mujahideen forces took part in widespread murders of non-Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir in hopes of creating a Muslim-only state.

Two joint operations between Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba attracted especial condemnation. Twenty-three Hindus, including several women and small children, were massacred in the village of Wandhama on January 23, 1998. Two years later, during a visit of the president of the United States to South Asia, 35 Sikh men were slaughtered in Chattisinghpora.

Such violence alienated many supporters of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. The Wandhama massacre led Jamaat-e-Islami to publicly renounce terrorism in late 1998 and apparently sever ties with the group. The leader of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen faction involved in the massacre, Hamid Bhatt, also known as Hamid Gada or Bambar Khan, was forced out of a leadership position because he was considered to be too closely allied with the more radical foreign Muslims. On March 13, 2000, he was killed by security forces operating on information provided by an unpaid Kashmiri Muslim informant.

In late June 2000, Syed Salahuddin, the leader of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, announced a cease-fire and suggested that the group negotiate with India. As a result, he was expelled from the leadership of a Pakistan-based umbrella organization of Muslim militant groups. The cease-fire lasted only a few weeks, however, because Salahuddin insisted that Pakistan be included in any negotiations, a condition [Page 262]India found unacceptable. Nonetheless, brief negotiations did take place. Since then, India and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen have alternated between attacking each other—including a 2004 bomb attack on a bus carrying Indian security forces and their families that killed 33 people—and making proposals for further cease-fires and negotiations.