Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami

It has been most active in the South Asian countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India since the early 1990s. The organisation has been designated as a terrorist group by India, Israel, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, and Bangladesh when its Bangladesh branch was banned in 2005.

The operational commander of HuJI, Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in South Waziristan on 4 June 2011. He was linked to the 13 February 2010 bombing of a German bakery in Pune. A statement was released soon after the attack that claimed to be from Kashmiri; it threatened other cities and major sporting events in India. A local Taliban commander, Shah Sahib, was named as Kashmiri's successor.

History

HuJI or HJI was formed in 1984, during the Soviet–Afghan War, by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Akhtar. Khalil later broke away to form his own group, Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA), which became a highly feared militant organisation in Kashmir. This group re-formed as Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) when HuA was blacklisted by the United States in 1997.

HuJI first mainly operated in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, but after the Soviets retreated, the organisation also started operating in Jammu and Kashmir. HuJI's influence expanded into Bangladesh when the Bangladeshi branch of the organisation was established in 1992, with direct assistance from Osama bin Laden.

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Ideology

The organisation, along with other jihadist terrorist groups such as Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Al-Qaeda & Lashkar-e-Taiba have similar motivations and goals. Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen were both strongly backed by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda and the group professed Taliban-style fundamentalist Islamist ideology. The organisation aims to spread radical Islamist ideology, to take over Kashmir, Afghanistan, Palestine, and the rest of Muslim-majority lands from what it calls "enemies of Islam" and enforce its extremist interpretations of Sharia in all those regions.

Activities in Bangladesh

In the 1990s, HuJI gave recruitment training near the hilly areas of Chittagong and Cox's Bazar. In 1999, members of the organisation attacked Bangladeshi poet Shamsur Rahman. HuJI claimed responsibility for the 2001 Ramna Batamul bombings, where 10 people were killed. It was also the prime suspect in a plot to assassinate former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2000. In 2005, it was officially banned by the government of Bangladesh. HuJI has been condemned by various Islamist groups such as the Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh.

In 2008, the founders formed Islamic Democratic Party (IDP) and Abdus Salam was chosen as the leader.

Activities in India

The government of India has declared HuJI a terrorist organisation and banned it. In 2006, the Indian state police Special Task Force uncovered a plot by six HuJI members, including the mastermind of the 2006 Varanasi bombings, involving the destruction of two Hindu temples in Varanasi. Maps of their plans were recovered during their arrest. The organisation has claimed responsibility for blasts at the Delhi High Court that killed 10 people and injured around 60. Vikar Ahmed, a member of an Islamist group connected to HuJI, has been accused of murdering police officers in Hyderabad. He is also a suspect in the Mecca Masjid bombing.

HuJI claimed responsibility for the 2011 Delhi bombing, but this has not been confirmed by the National Investigation Agency. 14 people were killed and 94 injured in the blast. Police have released two sketches of the suspects. HuJI has threatened to target other Indian cities.

Designation as a terrorist organisation

On 6 August 2010, the United Nations designated Harakat-ul Jihad al-Islami a foreign terror group and blacklisted its commander, Ilyas Kashmiri. State Department counterterrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin said this demonstrated the global community's resolve to counter the group's threat. "The linkages between HUJI and Al-Qaeda are clear, and today's designations convey the operational relationship between these organisations", he said.