New Delhi: Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar alias ‘Latram’, who was released by India along with terrorists Masood Azhar and Omar Sheikh following the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 hijack crisis in December 1999, has been “operating from Karachi in Pakistan to recruit separatist elements within Kashmir”, intelligence sources have said.
The Union Home Ministry Wednesday designated Zargar, founder and chief commander of Al-Umar Mujahideen, a “terrorist” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Zargar — who drifted from the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and founded Al-Umar Mujahideen (AuM), which talks of Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan — was a coppersmith by trade, and grew up in Srinagar’s Nowhatta area near the Jama Masjid. Al Umar-Mujahideen is also listed as a terrorist organisation by India.
According to sources in the security establishment, Zargar has been “providing mercenaries to terror outfits including Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba”.
“He is a master recruiter. He not only provided logistical support to terror outfits but also made recruitments for them. He coordinated with these outfits to provide people to fight,” a source said.
“He had been in jail since 1992. After his release in 1999, he renewed the activity of Al-Umar Mujahideen in Muzaffarabad, which is close to the LoC. He also established connections with the separatist elements in the downtown area in Srinagar. In fact, he has recruited and trained youngsters for ‘war’ in Kashmir, and has also been working to renew the sleeper cells,” the source said.
According to sources, Zargar also ran an “extortion racket” and had a strong hold over the downtown area in Srinagar.
“He ran an extortion racket and collected money from small businessmen in the valley to raise money,” the source said.
According to the home ministry notification, Zargar had been running an “incessant campaign from Pakistan to fuel terrorism in J&K”.
“He has been involved in various terror crimes including murder, attempt to murder, abduction, planning and execution of terrorist attacks and terror funding,” the notification said.
“Zargar is a threat to peace, not only to India, but across the world, with his contacts and proximity to radical terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed,” it said.
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‘Got training in Pakistan’
Zargar crossed over to Pakistan to get arms training, after which he participated in several attacks that were planned in India, sources in the intelligence agencies said.
“After he was released from India in exchange for IC-814 passengers, he went to Pakistan. He had earlier got arms training from there. His main work sitting in Pakistan was to increase recruitment, and now he has been doing the same on social media,” a second source said.
Zargar is suspected to be the man behind the June 2019 terror attack in Kashmir’s Anantnag, in which five CRPF personnel were killed and three others were injured after their patrolling party was attacked with grenades.
In 2017, Zargar claimed responsibility for many of the grenade attacks on security forces in the Kashmir Valley.
At the time, he telephoned Deccan Chronicle, saying, “I’m Mushtaq Zargar, the Al-Umar Mujahideen chief. I’m in Doda (a district in the eastern Jammu region) and am speaking to you on behalf of my organisation and Jaish-e-Mohammed. We together carried out the attacks and we do plan more such and similar strikes, for we strongly believe India understands only the language of violence. The musallah jadujuhad (armed struggle) is the only way out as it alone can drive the occupying forces out and free our Kashmir from the Indian yoke.”
According to the source, it was also suspected that Zardar was involved in the 2017 lynching case of Mohammad Ayub Pandith, a deputy superintendent of police.
In June 2017, Pandith was lynched to death when people were observing Shab-e-Qadr outside the Jamia Masjid in Nowhatta.
In 2016, alleged AuM operatives also attacked an Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) convoy in Srinagar, killing one jawan and injuring several others.
Earlier, India had designated Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar, respectively the masterminds behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and the Pulwama attack, as terrorists under a 2019 amendment to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) .
The amendment to UAPA — India’s anti-terror law — introduced a provision to designate individuals who either commit or participate in acts of terrorism, or prepare for terrorism, or promote or encourage terrorism. The amendment added “individuals” in Sections 35-38, alongside organisations, as designated terrorists.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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