Hizbul Mujahideen losing grip on Jammu and Kashmir?

Bengaluru: Is the banned global terror organisation — Hizb-ul-Mujahideen losing its grip on Kashmir? Faced with the consecutive loss of its field-hardened militants in fierce gun battles with the Indian security forces and Jammu and Kashmir police, diminishing crowds at their funerals since last year and a vertical split in the organisation, the Hizb chief and specially designated global terrorist Syed Salahuddin on Monday said that he has been betrayed by "traitors" and "Indian agents".  

Salahuddin, who is on the back foot in the Valley after losing his trusted aide Yaseen Yattoo alias Ghaznavi on Sunday, now faces a grim challenge from Zakir Rashid Bhatt alias Moosa, who in May this year had created a split in the terror outfit after he had warned the separatist leaders not to meddle in the outfit's aim to establish a Caliphate in J&K along the lines of ISIS.

Hizb, which has been fomenting massive unrest in the Valley since 1989 with the active support of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) immediately washed its hands off Moosa and publicly declared that the outfit has neither got anything to do with Moosa or his ideology, which was in stark contrast to Hizb's sinister ambition to annex J&K to Pakistan. Salahuddin asserted that Hizb was a local organisation and had nothing to do with ISIS, al Qaeda or Taliban.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, inspector-general of police (IGP), Kashmir, Muneer Khan said there's a synergy among police, Army, CRPF and other security agencies backed by local support, which is signalling a change in the Valley. "We are in Phase I in which we will cleanse the Valley of militants. The fact that we have been getting good information about the locations of the militants is proof enough of the local support. There are between 150 and 175 ultras in the Valley. Out of them 40 to 50 are hardened militants," said the top officer.

"In Phase II we will invite the militants to surrender and we will help in their rehabilitation. Things have changed since last year, when Burhan Wani (former top commander of Hizb) was killed. Now the crowds at the funeral of the militants have started dwindling and the stone pelting has also come down. The young boys, who were being lured by Pakistan with funds and arms will be weaned back to mainstream," said the IGP, who has been in counter insurgency operations in J&K since 1993 barring some civil postings in between.