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India-Pakistan

A HuJI militant, he is wanted for Jaipur, UP, Samjhauta blasts, say Delhi Police

2008-05-23

Mohammad Iqbal alias Abdur Rehman (31), arrested from New Delhi railway station on Wednesday night, had information about recent Jaipur blasts, Delhi Police said today. He is also wanted for last year’s UP blasts in Varanasi and Gorakhpur and the Samjhauta Express blasts in Panipat. Joint Commissioner of Police Karnal Singh told the media today that Rehman, a militant of Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami (HuJI), was also wanted in a Delhi case in which his associate Shabbir Ahmad was arrested last year in Delhi with one kg of RDX. Two others, Babu Bhai and Naushad, were caught by the UP Special Task Force in June 2007 for their involvement in blasts there. The police said that during the interrogation, Rehman has revealed that he had information regarding the Jaipur blasts. “One of his associates is also lodged in Jaipur jail, whom the police will interrogate,” Singh added. Police sources said the Rajasthan Police has also contacted the Delhi Police to seek Rehman’s custody. The HuJI is the prime suspect behind the Jaipur serial blasts. Rehman’s arrest was made at Chelmsford Road near New Delhi Railway station and as per his information, an empty ground near a madarsa in D block in Janakpuri was dug, where, the police said, that he had hidden 3.1 kg RDX, 5 electronic detonators and one timer. The recovery was made on Wednesday night. More raids are being conducted. The police said Rehman stayed earlier in Janakpuri with one of his associates, who was to help him execute his plans. A hunt is on for the latter. Singh said the consignment of RDX was given to Rehman by Qamar alias Nata, a HuJI leader in Bangladesh, in February last year. But after the arrest of Babu Bhai and Naushad in UP, he buried the RDX in Janakpuri. “Nata himself had visited Rehman in a masjid in Sitapuri, Dabri. Rehman had worked as a Maulana in several masjids in western UP, Delhi’s Dabri, Janakpuri and Seelampur and has some relatives and friends who arrange hideouts for him. He knows Delhi very well since he has been coming here since his childhood,” Singh added. This was his third visit to Delhi to carry out blasts. The two earlier attempts were unsuccessful. He was to carry out attacks in crowded places. The specific plans were to be revealed later. The police said Rehman’s HuJI handlers had asked him to stay in his native Shyamli in Muzaffarnagar, UP. He was to contact one Shabbir Ahmad for carrying out the blasts in Delhi. “But after the arrest of Babu Bhai and Naushad last June, he was recalled to Bangladesh in October. He had stayed in Dhaka,” Singh said. Delhi Police had issued warrants against Rehman and his movements were being tracked. Rehman, Singh said, had left Muzaffarnagar in 2002 and came in contact with Babu Bhai in UP, who sent him to Bangladesh from where he went for the Daura-e-Khas training in Pakistan’s Sindh. The Delhi Police alleged that Rehman is trained in handling AK-47, operating LMG, TT pistol, rocket launcher, grenade, sniper rifle, SLR, RDX for making Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) with timer and detonator and making petrol bombs and other time bombs. “During his stay in Bangladesh this January, he was also taught to make IEDs. He has told us that Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad are supporting HuJI in its activities and provide training to Indian youths in their camps in Pakistan with the help of ISI,” he added.

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India-Pakistan

Hizbul Mujahideen suffered most among rebel outfits in Kashmir in 2007

2007-12-26

(KUNA) -- Police in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday said Pakistan-based outfit Hizbul-Mujahideen (HM) was the worst sufferer among the insurgent groups in Kashmir in 2007 with the killing of 34 top commanders and 307 cadres in encounters. Hizbul Mujahideen received a severe setback in 2007 having lost 34 top commanders and 307 cadres in the encounters with Indian security forces. HM received a severe setback in 2007 having lost 34 top commanders and 307 cadres in the encounters with Indian security forces, a top police officer of Jammu and Kashmir told reporters today, news agency Press Trust of India reported. "Insurgency in Kashmir is on the decline and HM cadres have gone underground," he said. Other insurgent groups whose "commanders" were killed in 2007 included Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Al-Badr, Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI), Tahreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM), Al-Umar, Jamail-ul-Mujahideen (JuM), JK Freedom Force (JKFF), Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Hizb-e-Islami (HeI) and Al-Barq. As many as 77 top commanders have been killed by security forces till November 2007, which includes 17 commanders of LeT, 13 of JeM, 10 of HuJI and three of Al-Badr. "This year HM lost one operation chief commander, four divisional commanders, seven district commanders, nine tehsil commanders, 12 area commanders and company commander," the officer said. Among the insurgent leaders killed in 2007 include Bilal Afghani, chief commander of Al-Badr on December 3 in Budgham followed by Qari Umar (deputy chief of HuJI for Jammu and Kashmir), Abu Hamza (chief operation commander of JuM), Qasim Bhatti (chief operation commander of LeT), Iajaz Ahmed Chopan (chief operation commander of HM), Aby Tallah (operation commander of LeT's Jammu region), Mohammad Younis (commander-in-chief, HMPPR) and Mohd Khalid-ur-Rehman (LeT's India operations head), the officer said. During the past two years, 182 rebel commanders were killed in Jammu and Kashmir and of these 75 commanders were of HM, 49 of LeT, 18 of JeM, 11 of Al-Badr and 20 of HuJI, the officer said. In 2006, out of 105 commanders killed, HM lost 41, LeT 32, HuJI 10, JeM five and Al-Badr four. In 2005, HM lost 31 top commanders, followed by 12 of LeT, nine of Al-Badr, seven of JeM, two commanders each of HuM and HuJI, besides one each of TuM, JuM, HeI and Al-Barq, the officer informed. In 2004, HM had lost three chief operation commanders -- Gazi Shahab-uddin, Gazi Naseer-uddin, Saif-ul-Islam, besides deputy chiefs -- Abbas Malik and Shakeel Ansari, the news agency said.

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India-Pakistan

Uttar Pradesh coppers arrest "commander" of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami

2007-12-24

Police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Saturday claimed to have made a significant breakthrough in the last months serial blasts in three cities in the state that killed 15 people and injured 80. The Special Task Force (STF) of the UP Police today arrested the "commander" of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI) outfit and his colleague, news agency Indo Asian News Service reported. Two men identified as Khalid Mujahid and Tariq Qasmi, were arrested today by the STF near UP capital Lucknow and also seized explosives from them. "The two arrested men were arrested with explosives, including three kgs of RDX, several packets of ammonium nitrate, half-a-dozen detonators and three mobiles," a senior UP Police official told reporters. "Interrogation of Tariq revealed that he was heading the HuJI unit in Uttar Pradesh," the official said. The arrested duo was masterminding various terror acts across UP since 2005, the official said.

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India-Pakistan

Cops bust plan to target Mayawati, gun down 2 terrorists

2007-12-23

LUCKNOW: Two suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists were on Sunday gunned down in an encounter in Barabanki with police, who believed they were planning to target Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. A map of five Kalidas Marg, official residence of Mayawati, 10 hand grenades, two AK-47 rifles, a suicide belt, six magazines and a number of cartridges were recovered from the possession of the two, Deputy Superintendent of Police, STF, Ram Badan told reporters. Both of them were stated to be Pakistani nationals. Reeeeeaally? Not Saoodis or Libyans? UP Police and Central security agencies yesterday arrested two militants of banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami (HuJI) from Barabanki railway station alleged to be involved in recent serial blasts in the state. The two were identified as Khalid Mohammed and Tariq. Some gelatin sticks and 1.25 kg of RDX were recovered from their dead, lifeless corpses them.

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India-Pakistan

HuJI hand suspected in UP blasts

2007-11-24

Banned Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islamia (HuJI) is believed to be behind the serial blasts that rocked three cities in Uttar Pradesh on Friday killing over a dozen people besides injuring several others. Sources in the security agencies said the terror strike could be seen as a revenge by the banned outfit for the assault on its members including the recent incident when lawyers manhandled three Jaish-e-Mohammed militants arrested in Lucknow last week. They said Jaish could have sought the help of HuJI as both the outfits followed the Deoband sect of Islam. HuJI, which is being mainly run from Bangaldesh, has managed to establish cells in Uttar Pradesh and that the outfit was responsible for previous major terror attacks. All three court premises in Lucknow, Faizabad and Varanasi, targeted today by the militants, had seen an incident of manhandling of militants or activists of anti-Ram temple in Ayodhya by lawyers. Last week three JeM militants were roughed up by lawyers and the bar association refused to take up their cases. Last week three JeM militants were roughed up by lawyers and the bar association refused to take up their cases. Faizabad court premises was witness to an altercation between activists of a Babri Masjid organisation and lawyers. The local bar association had banned its advocates from taking up their case. The court premises in Varanasi was witness last year to beating of a Waliullah Khan, the main accused in the Sankat Mochan temple explosions. In a related development, an outfit by the name of Al-Hind Mujahideen had claimed responsibility about the attacks and sent emails to some media houses.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Lashkar top gun eliminated

2004-12-27

The Army today claimed to have eliminated the deputy chief and divisional commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) at Hapatnar in Ganderbal area of Srinagar district. Also, an area commander of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) was killed in a feud between Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants and foreign mercenaries in Dool area of Doda district. In the same district, two militants were eliminated when security forces opened retaliatory fire. An Army spokesperson said that reacting to information provided by local contacts, troops of the Rashtriya Rifles carried out a swift operation at Hapatnar Chont Wali War in Ganderbal area early today morning. The spokesperson said the troops asked the militants to lay down their arms. They retaliated, resulting in an encounter which lasted for a couple of hours with two foreign militants being killed. The slain militants, according to the spokesperson, were later identified as Abu Abdullah alias Saddam alias Muslim, divisional commander of the Lashkar, and Abu Hataf, alias M2 alias Lala, the deputy and financial chief of the same outfit. I'm glad he's dead. I wanted to use the alias "Lala" and I was really cheesed to find it was already taken... The Army later recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition from the encounter site, including two AK rifles, a satellite phone and some money. The spokesperson said troops also recovered a substantial quantity of war-like stores from the slain militants. The spokesperson termed the killings of the two commanders a setback for the outfit and said it showed the resentment of the locals, who have started providing information to the troops, against the militants. However, police said both the slain militants were associated with the Jammu and Kashmir Freedom Force (JKFF).

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India-Pakistan

Kashmir Korpse Kount

2003-11-02

Close on the heels of the surrender of 19 top terrorists, 11 hardcore terrorists, including three top commanders of Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami were killed in separate gunbattles in Jammu and Kashmir since Friday night, official sources said in Jammu on Saturday. Hurrah! Nice shootin', Mukkerjee! Army troops launched a seek and destroy operation in Surankote area of Poonch district on Friday night following intelligence inputs that a jehad council meeting was taking place in Mohra Bachie forest belt in the district. Terrorists fired on the troops, who retaliated, the sources said adding in the exchange of fire four terrorists were killed and two others escaped. In the continued operation, two more terrorists, were killed on Saturday afternoon. Those killed included three top commanders. The terrorists were identified as Huji platoon commander Abu Kamraz, Hizb area commander Hamza Turki and LeT district commander Mustaq Khan, both residents of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

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India-Pakistan

Pak training militants in mountain warfare

2003-10-13

Pakistan is raising ’special militant groups’ to target mountainous terrains along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir by imparting them high altitude warfare in Federally Administered Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan, top security force sources said. Where the hell do they get the money for all these adventures?... Oh. From us... Militants drawn from Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami, al-Badr and tribals of North West Frontier Province and FATA were being trained at the High Altitude Mountain Warfare schools at Wazirstan, Khyber, Bajaur and Kurram, sources told PTI. Run by Pakistan’s Northern Frontier Light Infantry Brigade, these mountain warfare schools are training ’militants in guise of soldiers’, they said. These training schools are being financed by drug barons of Golden Crescent, popularly known as ’Maliks of FATA’, who had extended financial help to warring Afghan groups during the war with Russia as well as Taliban, churned by Markaz-ad-Dawa, the sources said. The NFLI Brigade looks after operational area opposite to Siachen-Kargil-Ladakh Sector of J&K and was the main brain behind Kargil intrusion. A four-month crash course is being imparted to these militants and the first batch would soon be out to be used for sabotage operation in high altitude areas in J&K borders, they said. Evidence and intelligence reports collected on these activities said American M-16 assault rifles, 7 mm-automatic sub-machine guns, Chinese rocket launchers, special American air defence guns and even shoulder fired Stinger missiles were being used in training and some of these would be given to them for use in J&K. Eighty-five terrorist training camps and 129 launching pads have also been revived in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, they added.

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India-Pakistan

HUJI sets Jan 25 deadline for J&K women to quit jobs

2003-01-20

Press Trust of India Setting January 25th as the deadline for Muslim women in Jammu and Kashmir to quit government jobs, a pro-Pakistani militant outfit today threatened to kill those who did not obey their orders, official sources said in Jammu. Yep. It's that "religion of peace" thing again... The posters in the name of Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islamia (HUJI) outfit pasted on the main walls of a mosque of Shahdara Sharief in the border district of Rajouri asked women to quit government jobs by January 25 or face death, the sources said. Rajouri borders Pak-occupired Kashmir. It's kind of an analog to Spin Boldak on the Afghan border, except that the infiltration's a little harder... The posters, which were immediately removed by the police, also directed all families to get their daughters, who have reached the age of 15, married immediately, they said. All women, girls should take baths at home and stay all the times in their homes, they said and added "whenever they (women) move out they should be veiled. "Those who do not obey these directions will face serious consequences, including death," the HUJI posters said. That's what the Taliban looked like, alright... The HUJI outfit also reiterated the threat issued by the Lashker-e-Jabbar (LeJ), which said women folks should journey along with their male counterpart. Jabbar is a nut group that's been around for a couple years. I don't think it's very large at all... The move has sent shivers down the spine of people particularly in Muslim women in the border district due to the deadline threat, the sources said. "It is a move by the militant outfits to Talibanise the Kashmiriat and Sufi culture of Jammu and Kashmir," they said. Those shivers traveling down the spine, that's called terror...

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India-Pakistan

Three gunnies iced in Doda shootout...

2002-07-18

Three militants, including two foreign mercenaries, were killed and nine security personnel injured in an encounter on Thursday after the Bad Guys holed up in a house in Banihal town of Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir. Inspector General of Police P L Gupta said that the militants took shelter in a three-storey house near a mosque and fired from there on the security forces who had cordoned off the area following a tip-off. "You'll never take us alive, coppers!" "Hokay." He said that the militants were not holed up in the mosque as had appeared initially. "One false move and the holy man... uh, forget it." In the gunbattle, three militants were killed, Gupta said, adding two of them had been identified as Abu Dujana of Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI) and Mohammad Idris of Jaish-e-Mohammad. During the exchange of fire, the house of Mohammad Anwar Teli, a retired assistant commissioner and now associated with the ruling National Conference, where militants had been hiding, caught fire, Gupta said, adding four shops were also gutted in the blaze. "Goddammit! Look at this mess! Who's gonna clean up this mess? Take yer shootouts down the street, dammit! They're up til all hours of the night, playing the stereo, screaming at each other...!" Three policemen and six other security men, including a Major and a Captain, sustained injuries in the encounter. The encounter stalled movement of traffic on Jammu-Srinagar national highway for several hours but resumed after the standoff came to an end allowing movement of Amarnath pilgrims. Two of the injured had been airlifted to the military hospital at Udhampur in a serious condition, Gupta said. "Uh... Honey? Hey, look, I'll be home a little late. I'm stalled in traffic... Yeah. They're having a shootout... And some guy's house is on fire... And there are helicopters landing... Uhuh. And corpses... Yeah. I think the ice cream's gonna be melted before I get there..." Mop up was continuing and bodies of some more militants were expected to be recovered from under the debris, official sources said, adding earlier reports had suggested that the number of holed up militants was seven. "Yeah, Honey... Dead guys. Somebody said there were seven of them... Anybody we know? I don't think so... Oh. Wait! There's Mohammad Idris... Part of him, anyway..."

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India-Pakistan

HuJI Supremo iced in Srinagar

2002-06-06

Security forces shot dead a top terrorist commander Wednesday night in Kashmir. Mohammed Rafiq Lone, commander of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami, was killed in an encounter with security forces on the outskirts of Srinagar, police said. Lone, from the southern Kashmir district of Doda, was wanted over a number of attacks and had escaped police custody two years ago. They'll be ululating in Srinagar 2-nite! The Indos are on a roll!

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Terror Networks

Kashmir Korpse Kount

2002-04-19

Three snuffies were killed by troops during an encounter in Udhampur district. Troops claimed recovery of two Ak rifles with some ammunition, one pistol and a radio set from the deaders, who reportedly owed allegiance to Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HuJI). An SPO was killed as hard boys fired rockets towards a police station in in Bandipora. Reports said the SPO was killed when a group raided a police picket and threw a grenade at it in Bandipora. Before leaving the spot, the militants decamped with three .303 rifles alongwith some ammunition. A defence spokesman said troops recovered 65 Kg of RDX exposive and two grenades during search operations in Kupwara. A retired snuffy was iced by former business associates in downtown Srinagar. The deceased was a surrendered militant and was arrested by BSF in connection with a bank robbery incident at Hawal last year. Police recovered a body in Gool area of Doda district. No details, except that he was dead. Another body was recovered in Jammu district. Police is investigating. Bad Guys fired several rockets towards Beerwah police station in Badgam district, causing minor damage to the nearby family quarters manned by police. No one was hurt.

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