Fissures in the Hizb

The Hizbul Mujahideen appears to have split down the middle, with the dissident group asserting that it is for a direct dialogue with New Delhi, in association with all Kashmir-based political forces.

HUNDREDS of people turned out for the funeral rites of Ghulam Rasool Khan, the Hizbul Mujahideen's top military commander in the Kashmir Valley. Khan, better known by his code names Saif-ul-Islam and `Engineer' Zamaan, was killed in an April 2 encounter carried out just a few hundred metres from Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's home on the outskirts of Srinagar.

Across the Line of Control, in Muzaffarabad, hundreds of Hizb cadre had turned out five days earlier to condemn Khan and his boss, Hizbul Mujahideen supreme commander Mohammad Yusuf Shah. The protesters blamed Shah for ordering the assassination of dissident commander Abdul Majid Dar. Dar's supporters, led by Tufail Ahmad, vowed to avenge his death. When Khan was eliminated, it was widely believed that the dissidents had taken revenge.

Three years after Dar announced a short-lived but seismic unilateral ceasefire, the Hizbul Mujahideen seems as firmly divided down the middle as the State of Jammu and Kashmir itself. The killings of Khan and Dar are just the most visible signs of a feud that has sundered the organisation, seemingly beyond the point of no return. Although bloody vendettas have been around in the State as long as terrorism itself, most of them have been driven by personality clashes and the lure of pelf. The infighting in the Hizb revolves, instead, around serious issues. Shah and the mainstream Hizb commanders believe that violence is necessary to compel India to talk to Pakistan on terms that will bring about a settlement acceptable to them. The dissidents believe the time has come to join in a direct dialogue with the Union government, in association with Kashmir-based political forces in and outside the secessionist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

Hizb insiders believe the fighting reflects, in part, a large-scale loss of faith in Shah's leadership. Khan's elimination is a case in point. After Dar's expulsion from the organisation in May 2001, Khan had been ordered to take his place for a two-year term. The new commander dithered, afraid to cross into India through Kupwara, a district controlled by Hizb cadre affiliated to the dissidents. He only crossed over in August that year, after arranging the assassination of Farooq Mirchal, Dar's key aide in northern Kashmir. Since his term was formally scheduled to end in May, Khan had been lobbying for a replacement to be designated. There were no volunteers in the Hizb's central command council. Possible candidates were, correctly as it turned out, concerned that treachery would make their tenure short-lived.

In the end, the Hizb hastily nominated Ghazi Nasib-ud-Din, the new commander for the Valley. Ghazi Nasib-ud-Din is believed to be a code name for Rashid Hajam, a former Hizb north division chief who used to operate under the aliases Tahir Ejaz and Imtiyaz. A one-time resident of Kupwara, Hajam was only one of two Hizb command council members who supported Shah's decision to expel Dar, along with former deputy south division commander Abdul Gani. Two others, former Srinagar and north division commander Majid Jehangir and Ghulam Rasool Dar, a member of the Hizb delegation, which met Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande in August 2000, had walked out of the meeting. The two who remained, Pir Panjal regiment commander Samsher Khan and former south division commander Khalid Saifullah, argued that Dar should be given more time.

Immediately after the expulsion, fissures showed up in the Hizb's field commands. The head of the organisation's Dachinpora unit, code-named Zahoor-ul-Islam, and some 50 cadre, took the unprecedented step of sending a signed petition to Shah. Financial chief Farooq-ul-Islam, in turn, termed the decision an "unfortunate step". Cadre in the Hizb's south zone continued to report to Khurshid Ahmad Zargar, who was sacked along with Dar. Zargar, a one-time veterinary surgeon who operates under the code name Asad Yazdani, is among Dar's most powerful aides. Shah himself was heckled at visits to training camps in Pakistan where, sources say, cadre demanded to know why he did not himself return to fight in India if he was so hostile to Dar's ceasefire plans. By November last year, following armed clashes in the camps, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) personnel had to step in and physically segregate followers of the two factions.

Now, after the killings of Dar and Khan, the situation has gone from bad to worse. On April 9, the Shah faction lost another key commander - southern division deputy commander Mohammad Yusuf Hajam, code-named Qamar-ul-Zaman, was shot dead in an encounter in the Yarwan forests near Pulwama. A one-time policeman, Hajam's experience was highly valued in the organisation since he had been active in the field since 1989. Correctly or otherwise, Hizb cadre on the ground have linked the killing to fratricidal feud.

Meanwhile, there are signs that pro-Dar dissidents are laying siege to the command council in Muzaffarabad. Hajam's former boss, south division commander Khurshid Ahmad Zargar, who returned to Pakistan some weeks ago, has called for the Hizb to continue the armed struggle in consultation with secessionist leaders and foreign diplomats - a marked departure from Shah's line, which accords centrestage to Pakistan.

To make things worse, Shah's election-time honeymoon with the People's Democratic Party (PDP) seems to have come to an end. The Hizb had hoped that Mufti Mohammed Sayeed's soft line on terrorism would give it time to recuperate from its internal fighting. Under pressure from New Delhi, however, the Chief Minister has been forced to crack down on terrorists, particularly those operating in south Kashmir. The Hizb has responded with reprisals, killing PDP activist Abdul Razzak Rather on April 9, but with little effect so far.

Meanwhile, the official Hizb's happy relationship with other Pakistan-based jehadi groups has also come under pressure. On April 14, the Rashtriya Rifles eliminated top Banihal Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Abdul Rahman Saif on the basis of information provided by disgruntled local Hizb cadre. Saif was alleged to have been involved in several rape cases in the area.

Dar's death, clearly, has not settled anything within the Hizb. His ghost, it would seem, could haunt the organisation's leadership for a good deal of time to come.