A Brief Profile of Hafiz Tohar: Militant Mastermind Behind Myanmar’s Rohingya Insurgency

A Brief Profile of Hafiz Tohar: Militant Mastermind Behind Myanmar’s Rohingya Insurgency

Myanmar’s beleaguered Rakhine state has witnessed a series of violent incidents since last October following surprise armed raids by a group of Rohingya Islamist militants. The raids, which targeted security posts in Maungdaw district and left several dead on both sides, triggered a fresh wave of displacement among the local population. Myanmar’s border police were completely surprised by the armed raids, which continued for weeks following the initial October 9, 2016 raids. At least 17 security personnel and over 70 militants died in the ensuing gun battles while the militants made off with a large quantity of arms and ammunition from the border police headquarters in Maungdaw town (Asian Correspondent, December 17, 2016).

The government’s initial estimate showed that the militants seized over 50 guns of various makes and over 10,000 rounds of assorted ammunition (Morung Express, October 9, 2016). The armed attacks continued, although they were smaller and more random, in January and February this year, focused mostly in Maungdaw’s Norula and Aung Zaya localities. In response, government forces have beefed up security measures at sensitive border outposts in the area — mostly in the Ngakhuya, Kyainchaung and Sabaekone localities — amid renewed fears of major militant raids targeting government infrastructure, including communication lines (Eleven, March 12)

The firebrand militant leader Hafiz Tohar (transliterated from Havistoohar; a.k.a. Abu Ammar al Junooni; a.k.a. Attah Ullah) has surfaced as the leader on the ground and mastermind behind this surge of armed raids on border posts in the last six months. Although government agencies were initially clueless about who was behind this sudden spurt of violence that mobilized several hundred armed militants, interrogation reports of captured militants soon shed light on both the leader and backers of this hitherto unknown ragtag Islamist group. Propaganda subsequently released by the group supports the government’s findings. Following the October attacks, Hafiz Tohar made several video statements seeking support for the Rohingyas. Despite conflicting messages disseminated in the group’s videos, its objective seems to be to liberate the Rohingya Muslim-dominated regions in Myanmar’s Rakhine state through armed insurgency (YouTube, October 11, 2016).

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army

Over the last four decades, there have been multiple attempts to radicalize Rohingya refugees. Regional Islamist militant groups — like the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO), Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Arakan (HuJI-A) and Lashkar Mujahideen of Rohingya — have attempted to recruit these refugees under their respective militant banners under the guise of support for the Rohingya Muslims’ cause. Although a concerted campaign to spark jihad started post-2012, it was not until late last year that an organized jihad campaign using guerrilla war tactics emerged in Myanmar. The group behind the recent spate of attacks, as it has identified itself in propaganda videos and interviews with regional media, is Harakah al-Yaqin (Faith Movement, HaY) (Dhaka Tribune, January 10).

According to Myanmar’s security agencies, HaY is nothing but another name for Aqa Mul Mujahidin (AMM), an offshoot of the Rohingya Solidarity Organization (RSO).  However, in late March 2017, the group openly changed its name to the “Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army,” keeping the “Faith Movement” tag. Additionally, it issued a detailed statement with some 20 demands to the Myanmar government aimed at protecting Rohingya rights in the country. In a visible departure from its earlier jihadist propaganda, the group’s latest statement promised to “defend, salvage and protect the Rohingya community” in the Rakhine state (Arakan). It also vowed to act on the principle of self-defense and refuted any association with any terrorist group in the world (Frontier Myanmar, March 29). [1]

Hafiz Tohar is the overall commander of HaY. As shown in the many videos shared on popular social media platforms, HaY is comprised of a few hundred machete-wielding Rohingya militants (YouTube, October 14, 2016). At present, Tohar and his followers are waging a battle against Myanmar’s armed forces using mostly looted guns and ammunition. However, it is increasingly evident that HaY has backing of transnational Islamist agencies and individuals working toward the Rohingya cause. As investigative reports have noted, the HaY emerged with the support of a committee headquartered in Mecca and Medina. The committee is made up of least twenty senior Rohingya Islamists who have strong links to South Asia, especially with entrenched militant groups in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India (Crisis Group Report [No 283], December 15, 2016).

Path to Myanmar

Hafiz Tohar, 45, is featured prominently in the many militant videos flooding the Internet since October 2016. A Rohingya Bengali Muslim, Tohar was born in Karachi, Pakistan, where his parents lived as refugees. Tohar’s family later moved to Saudi Arabia, and he received his early education at an Islamic seminary in Mecca. It is apparent from the video messages that he is quite well-versed in Arabic, Urdu and Bengali, laced with Arakanese dialect.

In 2012, after the sectarian violence in Rakhine State between Buddhist Rakhine and Rohingya Muslims, Hafiz Tohar traveled from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and received militant training from the Taliban. From there, he sneaked into Myanmar via Bangladesh, where he was registered as a refugee. Along with nearly 20 followers from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan — all of Rohingya origin — Hafiz Tohar entered northern Rakhine sometime in 2015 and started mobilizing local villagers to carry out organized violence in response to government atrocities. Tohar and his associates have reportedly trained 25 to 30 operatives in modern guerrilla tactics (Dhaka Tribune, January 10).

It is believed that Tohar stayed in Kyaukpyinseik village in Maungdaw township for some time before going underground with his armed followers. Observers have identified several militant members who appeared in the videos as those who have escaped from refugee camps in Nayapara and Kutabaloun in Bangladesh. According to government sources, Tohar is still using his refugee status and frequents Teknaf in Bangladesh to gather money and supplies. Tohar — along with a senior associate identified as Kalis, a Pakistani national — oversees the training and recruitment for the group. Hafiz Tohar and his close associates evidently have managed in a short time to mobilize local youths in Maungdaw and nearby areas, persuading them to wage jihad against Myanmar’s army (Eleven, October 15, 2016).

International Links

A reporter for Bangladesh’s Dhaka Tribune ventured to the group’s hideout and interviewed HaY’s operatives in January of this year. The group denied being a terrorist organization, instead characterizing itself as ‘“waging a movement against the oppression of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar government” (Dhaka Tribune, January 10). Taking responsibility for the October and November 2016 attacks on the border police posts, they denied any links with other local or international militant groups. Although the video clips circulated by the group suggest the indigenous character of the ongoing jihad, Hafiz Tohar’s direct appeal for support both in terms of foot soldiers and weapons is clearly targeted at transnational Rohingyas or sympathetic Islamist groups.

In mid-October 2016, video messages surfaced urging for international as well as local Rohingya support, invoking Islam. Tohar said in one of the messages, “If you [Rohingyas worldwide] want to save the honor of mothers and sisters of Arakan, if you want to save all the masjid and madrasas of Arakan from destruction […] take part in this great jihad with us” (YouTube, October 12, 2016). He also urged Islamic scholars around the world to issue fatwas for jihad in the Rakhine state. This call is aimed at getting religious legitimacy for the ongoing armed campaign. So far the group has not targeted civilians, rather targeting police and Myanmar’s army (known as Tatmadaw). In another video message, Tohar vows to continue the ‘Jihad in Arakan’ similar to the ongoing Gazwa-e Hind, the religious pretext to wage jihad against India by al-Qaeda and Pakistan-based militant formations (YouTube, October 12, 2016).

Conclusion

It would be premature to speculate that under Hafiz Tohar, HaY — after seeing some initial success against the security forces — will unleash a reign of terror in their strongholds, especially the affected Rakhine State districts of Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung. It is, however, amply clear that Tohar has managed to garner significant local support for this nascent jihad against Myanmar’s security forces, harnessing resentments that grew out of the 2012 Rakhine violence. Tohar’s personal charisma and militant capability might help mobilize more Rohingya Muslims at home and abroad, making this new militant group an attractive choice for both regional and transnational jihadist groups — like Islamic State Khorasan, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent or its Bangladesh offshoot Ansar al-Islam — to co-opt the fight against the Myanmar government’s so-called oppression in Rakhine State.

NOTES 

[1] For full text of the press statement of ARSA, See, https://www.rohingyablogger.com/2017/03/statement-of-arakan-rohingya-salvation.html