The Moulana the ultras want released is Harkat ideologue

JAMMU, DECEMBER 26: Moulana Azar Masood, whose release is being sought by the hijackers, woke up early this morning in the high-security K...

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JAMMU, DECEMBER 26: Moulana Azar Masood, whose release is being sought by the hijackers, woke up early this morning in the high-security Kot Bhalwal prison, 15 km from here. This is the holy month of Ramzan and Masood offered namaz and observed roza.

“He has come to know about the hijacking and the hijackers’ demand through the radio and the newspapers which he gets every morning,” a prison official told The Indian Express. And those who watch him day and night say he hasn’t shown any reaction whatsoever.

That doesn’t come as a surprise to many here. For emotion is not the first thing they associate with this 45-year-old ideologue of the pan-Islamic Harkat-ul-Ansar. Prison officials say that Masood is a “deeply religious and unpretentious man but a hard nut to crack.” Intelligence officials from some Western nations used to visit him for questioning in connection with their four abducted nationals but without any success.

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Even 50 hours after the hijacking, there’s no change in his behaviouror attitude. Masood continues observing roza and offering namaz five times a day, besides reading newspapers and listening to radio to fill the silence in his cell.

Prison authorities have tightened the security within and around the Kot Bhalwal jail and have barred all visitors for the time being. They have reason to. On October 16 last year, three Pak militants, one of whom was involved in a Republic Day blast in Jammu, escaped. Two other unsuccessful attempts were made by Pakistani prisoners to escape, including the one in which a top militant, Sajad Afghani, was killed. In all, 66 Pakistani prisoners are currently serving time here.

The group, which believes in pan-Islamic ideology of `one-flag, one-Government, one-country’ in the entire Muslim world (“including Kashmir”) has its headquarters in Pakistan and Moulana Fazlul Rehman Khalil is its top leader.

The group was very active during the Mujahideen uprising against the erstwhile Soviet Union in Afghanistan and is also running a large networkof madrassas across Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and another like-minded pan-Islamist militant outfit, Harkat-e-Jehadi Islami merged together later and formed a new outfit, Harkat-ul-Ansar. The group was blamed for the abduction of five western tourists from Pahalgam on July, 5, 1995, though the kidnapping was claimed by a unknown outfit, Al-Faran.

The security agencies here believe that Al-Faran was a fake outfit created by Harkat as its frontal organisation during the kidnapping drama of the western tourists. One among the tourists, a Norweigian was later beheaded as the Government declined to accept their demands. Interestingly, the Al-Faran had also demanded the release of Maulana Azhar Masood along with other top leaders.

However, after Harkat-ul-Ansar was declared to be a banned group by the United States along with LTTE, the organisation started working on its previous names also.