Abdul Hameed Lelhari, the new emir of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), claims that a Pakistani agency recently tried to rein in the jihad in Kashmir by cutting a deal with his group. AGH and al Qaeda have repeatedly argued that Pakistani-backed jihadist groups are pursuing nationalist goals, as opposed to a supposedly purer ideological vision.
Indian forces have killed Zakir Musa, who led the al Qaeda-linked Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH). Musa and his men have attempted to poach from Pakistani-backed jihadist groups, while also competing with an upstart Islamic State presence. Musa’s motto was “Sharia or Martyrdom.”
On May 14, the UN Security Council added the Islamic State’s so-called Khorasan province to its list of sanctioned terrorist entities. The group has recently rebranded operations in Kashmir and Pakistan as the work of supposedly new “provinces.”
In retaliation for a suicide attack in Kashmir, the Indian Air Force launched a raid against a JeM camp in Balakot inside Pakistan, killing scores of jihadists. The Pakistani government is denying the raid took place.
Khan’s claim that “our [Pakistani] soil is not used for carrying out terrorist attacks in other countries” is remarkably similar, if not identical to the Afghan Taliban’s false assurances that it won’t allow its territory to be used by terror groups.
Indian security forces launched a decisive counter-terror operation yesterday in the Kashmiri districts of Shopian and Anantnag resulting in the deaths of at least 13 terrorists, three Indian security forces, and four civilians.
Pakistan continues to fuel the terrorist insurgency inside Jammu and Kashmir by backing Lashkar-e-Taiba and other proxies.
On Aug. 31, Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind’s leader, Zakir Musa, released an audio message in which he criticized the Pakistani government for supposedly betraying the jihad in Kashmir. Musa’s critique is consistent with al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent’s “code of conduct.”
