The Jihadi Demagogue: A Profile of Maulana Masood Azhar of Pakistan
The Jihadi Demagogue: A Profile of Maulana Masood Azhar of Pakistan
Maulana Masood Azhar is one of the most dreaded Pakistani jihad leaders within the Indian political and security establishments. Formerly associated with the Harkat troika (Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami [HujI], Harkat-ul-Mujahideen [HuM], Harkat-ul-Ansar [HuA]—HujI-HuM-HuA), Masood Azhar and his Kashmiri militant brethren brought the government of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajapyee to its knees with the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in late December 1999. The hijacking lasted for seven days and ended when the Indian government agreed to release Masood Azhar and two other high-profile militants, Ahmed Omar Saeed Shaykh and Mushtaq Zargar, in exchange for the hostages. [1]
Masood Azhar’s Sunni-Deobandi lineage as well as his fierce pro-Kashmir and anti-Western ideals brought him closer to al-Qaeda and Afghan-Taliban leadership figures including Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar. He ascended the heights of notoriety with the founding of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) on January 31, 2000 at Karachi’s famed Binori mosque with the help and blessings of three renowned Islamists: Nizamuddin Shamzai, Ahmed Rashid and Maulana Sher Ali Shah (Rediff.com, January 15, 2000).
A firebrand Jihadi demagogue, Azhar has been nourished and nurtured by Pakistan’s Madrassa-Military complex since the early 1990s. Pakistan turned down requests from Interpol and the FBI to arrest him in separate cases in the past. His sway over the establishment was also apparent when a Pakistani lobby influenced world powers like China to turn down India’s request to declare Masood Azhar a terrorist and be sanctioned by the UN Security Council’s 1267 Committee (Times of India [Mumbai], August 15, 2009). More often than not, Pakistan denies Masood Azhar’s presence in the country even if he resides and moves freely within Pakistan raising funds and giving jihad sermons to motivate new terrorist recruits. He is not even included in the latest Red Book (most wanted terrorists list, 2012) drawn up by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) included Masood Azhar on the Specially Designated Global Terrorist list in November 2010. Interpol had issued a red corner notice against him (no. A-1086-7-2004) in 2004 for conspiracy to wage war against India, murder, possessing explosives, arms and ammunition, as well as various offences relating to the Prevention of Terrorism Act. [2]
He is considered to be an influential Islamic preacher, writer and fundraiser for the cause of jihad. UK-based militant Dhiren Barot described Masood Azhar in his book The Army of Madinah in Kashmir as “one of the few revivers of Jihad… who mirrors in the Indian sub-continent what Abdullah Azzam was to the Arab world.” [3]
Early Years
Masood Azhar was born in 1968 in Bahawalpur of Punjab province, Pakistan. Masood Azhar was exposed to jihad at a young age—his father is a religious Deobandi and Masood Azhar studied at madrassas between 1980-1989, during which time he embraced jihad. He graduated from Uloom-al-Islamia (Islamic University of Karachi) in Binori Town of Karachi province, Pakistan—an ultra religious university, which boasts of producing a number of high-profile radical Islamist leaders and mujahideen who participated in Afghan and Kashmir jihad and is arguably the epicenter of Pakistan’s Madrassa-Military nexus politics. Masood Azhar came in direct contact with established Deobandi militant leaders like Fazlur Rahman Khalil (HuM) and Azam Triq (Sipah-e-Sahaba—SSP) during the early years of his career. His oratorical flair, knowledge of Islam and writing ability brought him closer to HuM’s leadership, who offered him militant training at HuM’s Yuvar camp in Afghanistan and appointed him to head a unit within HuM, which was engaged in motivating new recruits and mujahideen fighters.
In mid-1989, HuM chief Khalil placed Masood Azhar in charge of the publication of an Urdu language monthly Sada-e-Mujahid (The Voice of the Mujahideen), especially devoted to the Afghan mujahideen. He also edited one Arabic journal subsequently titled Sawt-e-Kashmir devoted to Kashmir jihad. While working as a teacher in the Binori mosque, he was actively engaged on behalf of HuM in exhorting Muslim youths to join Afghan and Kashmir jihad through his writings and incendiary speeches. His regular trips to the Afghanistan War theater and other countries had given him enough exposure to write articles and books on Islam and jihad. Masood Azhar has penned approximately 30 books on the subjects including, Fazail-e-Jihad, Fath-ul-Jawwad Fi Maarif Ayat-il-Jihad, Jihad-Rahmat, Islam aur Jihad ke Tayyariyan and Ta’leem-ul-Jihad. [4] One of his most circulated books, Virtues of Jihad, which is available on the Internet, reportedly motivated the July 7, 2006 London bombers (RUSI Analysis, February 22). [5]
Masood Azhar’s clout and popularity within Afghan and Pakistani jihadi circles positioned him as general secretary of Harkat-ul-Ansar, a hybrid of two Deobandi militant groups, HuM and HuJI, by 1993. Soon he began frequenting the UK, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, UAE (Abu Dhabi), Mongolia and Albania. He travelled extensively between 1989-1993 to recruit, to raise funds for Mujahideens and to preach Pan-Islamism. [6]
Tryst with Kashmir
The demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya (India) and the Kashmir struggle encouraged Masood Azhar to visit Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PAK) in January 1993. He entered India on January 29, 1994 using a Portuguese passport via Bangladesh with a fake identity (as Wali Adam Issa). While in Delhi, he made trips to various places including Deoband and Ayodhya (both in the state of Uttar Pradesh), where he vowed to take revenge against Hindu Nationalists who demolished the 16th century Babri mosque. [7] Masood Azhar then visited Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) where he was supposed to mediate between warring factions of Harkat mujahideens and to reignite jihad in J&K under the umbrella group Harakat ul-Ansar (HuA). However, on February 11, 1994, he was arrested along with Sajjad Afghani of HuM (Kashmir Unit) in Khanabal of Ananatnag district and jailed for more than six years on charges of involvement in the Kashmir militancy. His arrest triggered high profile abductions to secure his safe release from Indian prison.
In June 1994, HuA militants abducted two British nationals, Kim Housego and David Mackie, from Pahalgam and kept them for 17 days with a demand to release Masood Azhar and other mujahideen commanders from custody. Both Housego and Mackie were safely released through vigorous mediations by Dr. Qazi Nissar, an influential religious leader and founding member of the Muslim United Front (MUF), in Kashmir (The Independent [London], February 4, 1997). In October 1994, the notorious militant Omar Shaykh was sent to India to carry out kidnappings for Masood Azhar’s release. He managed to kidnap four foreigners (one U.S. and three UK citizens) in Delhi before he was arrested by Delhi police. Six foreign nationals were abducted from Phahalgam (J&K) on July 4, 1995 by a hitherto unknown group al-Faran (part of HuA). The Indian Government turned down the al-Faran’s demand to release eleven high-profile militants, including Masood Azhar. The government did not relent even after the beheading of a hostage. While one hostage managed to escape, the other remained untraceable and presumed dead.
Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Omar Saeed Shaykh were finally released from Indian prison following the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in December 1999. His brother Ibrahim Azhar and others affiliated to the rechristened Harkat ul-Mujahideen (HuM) plotted the hijacking, reportedly conniving with the Pakistani intelligence agency and erstwhile Taliban regime of Afghanistan. At the time of his release, the Kandahar corps commander of the Taliban, Maulvi Muhammad Akhtar Usmani, received him at the airport. According to Abu Jandal, (a former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden), al-Qaeda operatives were behind the hijacking plot of the Indian Airlines plane; Bin Laden and Masood Azhar met and celebrated following the release. Masood Azhar subsequently addressed a public rally in Karachi where he declared his intention to lead the mujahideen movement in Kashmir. [8] With the support from fellow Harkat operatives and Kashmir mujahideens, he distanced himself from his earlier organization and announced the formation of Jaish e-Muhammad (JeM) in early 2000.
Jaish-e-Muhammad and Beyond
Masood Azhar turned his attention toward Kashmir and wanted to outshine existing militant organizations operating in the J&K, especially Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba, by initiating jihad with suicide bomber attacks and explosive laden vehicles. His association with Kashmiri militant commander Mushtaq Zargar while in Delhi’s Tihar jail gave Masood Azhar a strategic advantage in J&K, especially for setting up bases inside the valley and in the recruitment of youths for Kashmir jihad.
Masood Azhar and his JeM introduced two things in the annals of Kashmir jihad: suicide bombers and foreign mujahideens. Soon after its formation, JeM struck at the Indian Army’s 15-corps headquarters in Badami Bagh cantonment on April 19, 2000, with a suicide car bomb. The bomber was 18-year-old Afaq Ahmad Shah (Tribune [Chandigarh], April 21, 2000). Another young JeM suicide car bomber identified as Pakistani born UK (Birmingham) resident Asif Sadiq (a.k.a Muhammad Bilal) stormed the army headquarters at Batwara, Srinagar, on December 25, 2000, killing nine people, including four security personnel. In 2001, JeM perpetrated a couple of attacks in J&K and in the heart of New Delhi, targeting symbols of Indian democracy.
On October 1, Jaish militants attacked the J&K Legislature Complex in Srinagar with a car bomb and then stormed the complex with indiscriminate shooting and grenade attacks. Nearly 40 people were killed and scores others injured (Tribune [Chandigarh] October 2, 2001). Emboldened with the success, JeM militants attempted to recreate the October 1 attack in New Delhi. On December 13, five militants attacked India’s Parliament in New Delhi. Eight security force personnel, a parliament staff member and the five militants were killed. The parliament attack received widespread condemnation following which Masood Azhar was reportedly reprimanded by his ISI masters and advised to maintain a low profile.
A major blow to Azhar and JeM came after two incidents: the Daniel Pearl murder and assassination attempts on then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Even though Azhar denied his involvement in these cases, the noose remained tightened on him and JeM’s activities. Following the December 25, 2003 suicide attacks on Musharraf, security agencies arrested hundreds of JeM militants and sealed many of the group’s properties across Pakistan. Intra-organizational fighting ensued within the ranks of JeM and its various incarnations like Tehrik-e-Khudamul Islam (TKI) and Jamaat-ul Furqan (JF) for assets and to establish control over mosques, seminaries and training centers worth millions of rupees.
While lying low in Pakistan, Masood Azhar and his trusted lieutenants (including his brother Abdur Rauf) acted under the guise of the educational charity al-Rehmat Trust (ART), which was placed under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department on November 2010 as the front organization for the JeM. In an August 2011 interview, Maulana Ashfaq Ahmed, coordinator of ART indicated that ART’s fundraising was in full swing in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces (Express Tribune [Karachi], Aug 19). JeM’s publications al-Qalam and Muslim Ummah are still soliciting donations through advertisements and subscriptions.
Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law Abdur Rauf reportedly tried to revamp JeM when he took charge of the organization in April 2007, while Masood Azhar remained elusive. He has stayed underground but remains an inspirational figure for jihadi elements in Pakistan. During the July 2007 Lal Masjid siege in Islamabad, many JeM militants stood up against the government forces at the behest of Masood Azhar. It is believed that many neo-Taliban groups and the next generation of Jihadi leaders in Pakistan still owe their origin to Masood Azhar and his teachings.
Animesh Roul is the Executive Director of Research at the New Delhi-based Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict (SSPC).
Notes
1. Omar Saeed Shaykh is a militant of British and Pakistan origin, best known for the abduction and murder of the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl. He worked with HuM, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Jaish-e-Muhammad at various times in his career. He is presently serving a death sentence in Pakistan. Mushtaq Zargar (a.k.a Mushtaq Latram) is a Kashmir militant who heads the al-Umar Mujahideen and is now based in the Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
2. See: https://cbi.nic.in/rnotice/A-1086-7-2004.html.
3. Esa al-Hindi, The Army of Madinha in Kashmir, Makhtab al-Ansar, Birmingham, 1999, Note.14, p 51.
4. Many of his writings are available online as the organization maintains at least four websites and various Islamic web forums. For full text of the book Fath-ul-Jawwad (translated into English by Professor Rasheed Ahmed Masood) see: https://www.rangonoor.com/books/azhar/fathuljawwad_eng1.pdf.
5. Raffaello Pantucci, “The Birmingham Terrorist Plotters: Lessons for Counter-Terrorism Today,” RUSI Analysis, February 22, 2013, https://www.rusi.org/analysis/commentary/ref:C51278ADD39311/#.UkX3RdJwqO4.
6. Masood Azhar went to Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj (pilgrimage) in 1987. He returned to Saudi Arabia for fundraising, recruiting and preaching at regular intervals until 1993. Azhar also traveled to Bangladesh in 1989, 1990 and 1991. He visited Abu Dhabi (UAE) and the UK in 1993. He reportedly visited Kenya, Sudan, Somalia and Zambia in the early 1990s where he met with leaders of al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, an al-Qaeda linked Somali group, which had requested money and recruits from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). Masood Azhar also travelled to the UK in August 1993 where he is believed to have acted as the prime motivator for many south Asian Muslim youths, especially in Birgimham, Nottingham, Leicester and London. Masood Azhar gained enormous clout within Pakistan and Kashmir from his travels and experiences raising funds for jihad and propagating radical Islam.
7. See Masood Azhar’s Babri Masjid speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHw1hYk9wJg.
8. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_P-teazF2g.
