NEW DELHI, Sep 26 (UNI): The Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), one of the 27 individuals and outfits whose accounts have been ordered to be frozen by the United States, has been receiving financial and logistics support from Pakistan and Saudi-born terrorist kingpin Osama bin Laden, senior intelligence officials said today.
The outfit, earlier known as Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA), has been active in Kashmir and other parts of India and has killed hundreds of innocent people in a series of terrorist activities.
"There are evidence which show that hum has been regularly receiving funds from Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to carry out terrorist activities in India," the senior officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told UNI today.
The officials quoted evidence intercepted by them during investigation of various terrorist cases to substantiate their charge.
Information about the outfits activities in India was also provided by two HuM terrorists, arrested by the Delhi police earlier this month.
HuMs involvement has also been found in the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 from Kathmandu on December 21, 1999.
The arrests of the Harkat cadres came only a couple of days after the terrorists strikes at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, headquarters of the US Defence department in which the Saudi-born billionaire is perceived by Washington as the prime suspect.
The evidence reveals that HuM, which is based in Muzafarrabad in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir, is one of the prominent associate organisations of al-Qaeda, the Afghanistan-based terrorist outfit of bin Laden.
Al-Qaeda has been giving financial support and arms and ammunition to HuM.
Some of the other organistations active in Kashmir are Sipah-e-Sahaba Kashmir, Hizb-al-Islami and Harkat-ul-Jehad.
The US had in 1997 declared Harkat-ul-Ansar as a terrorist organisation and the ban forced the organisation to revert back to its original name of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen to avoid the repurcussions of the ban.
The US ban on October one, 1997 made it difficult for the Harkat-ul-Ansars Pakistani sponsors to continue their support.
Fund raising activities in western countries too were affected.
Hence, the hua was officially closed and a new militant outfit HUM was formed.
The Pakistan-based terrorist outfit is back in the news after about four years.
As part of the effort to strike on the financial foundation of terrorists and their outfits, US President George W Bush yesterday asked foreign banks to freeze the assets of bin Laden, al-Qaeda, HUM and 24 others.
After HuM got depleted following the arrest of its key operatives, the outfits controlling body, Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), ensured that most of the cadre was transferred to Lashkar-e-Toiba.
LET has lately been carrying out suicide attacks on the camps of Indian Security Forces and had even attacked an army camp at the Red Fort in December last year.
According to information available with the US and Indian authorities, HuA was started in the early 1980s by certain religious elements as HuM with headquarters at Raiwind in Punjab (Pakistan).
HuM later shifted its base to Muzaffarabad.
HuA was formed by the merger of two Pakistani political activist groups, Harakat ul-Jihad al-Islami and HuM, and led by Maulana Saadatullah Khan.
The merger of these two political groups and its transformation into a militant group came about as part of the Afghan jihad.
The intelligence intercepts indicate that with a PAN-Islamic ideology, the outfit has been striving to achieve the secession of Jammu and Kashmir from India through violent means and its eventual merger with Pakistan.
About 60 per cent of its estimated 1000 strong cadre are Pakistanis and Afghans.
HuM has carried out several operations against Indian troops besides attacks on civilian targets.
During its operations in the valley, several of its top leaders including Masood Azhar (General Secretary and top idologue), Sajjad Afghani (Commander of the HuA in Jammu and Kashmir) and Nasarullah Manzoor Langaryal (Commander of the erstwhile HuM) were arrested by Indian Security Forces.
With the arrests, the outfit gradually lost its influence in the state.
Masood Azhar was of the three terrorists who were released by the Indian government in exchange of the captives of IC-814.
