SRINAGAR: A day after Al Qaeda announced former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa as chief of Kashmir cell “Ansar Ghawzat-Ul-Hind”, J&K police chief Friday downplayed it saying for them anybody who picks up a gun is a terrorist while separatist leaders asserted that Al Qaeda and ISIS have no role in Kashmir and their struggle was “indigenous” and it had nothing to do with global organizations.
“A terrorist is a terrorist. Whichever outfit he belongs, he is a terrorist. Somebody, who has picked up the gun is a terrorist for us,” J&K police chief S P Vaid told reporters, here today.
He was responding to a question on naming of Zakir as chief of Al Qaeda’s Kashmir cell, which has been named “Ansar Ghawzat-Ul-Hind”.
“We will investigate the arrival of Al-Qaeda's state unit,” DGP said.
Meanwhile, separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik in a joint statement today said “freedom struggle” of Kashmiris was indigenous and it has nothing to do with global organizations.
“Our movement is local in nature and indigenous in character,” they said.
They said groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda are non-existent in J&K and there was no role for these groups within “our movement”.
The separatist leaders alleged that Indian agencies were desperate to malign the Kashmir movement and under a well-thought-out plan, were devising policies to bring a bad name to the “freedom struggle” in Kashmir.
“Indian agencies by linking Kashmir’s freedom movement with some global organizations are planning their roguish activities to influence the international community,” Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik alleged.
They said Al Qaeda and ISIS were involved in merciless killings and they were neither fighting against tyrant forces nor succeeded in realizing Islamic jurisprudence in any part of the world.
The creation of the Kashmir cell was announced by Global Islamic Media Front, an al-Qaida-affiliated information network. It was the deepest in road al-Qaida has yet made in Kashmir.
A statement posted by the Al Qaida affiliate stated that “after the heroic martyrdom of Burhan Wani, the jihad in Kashmir has entered a stage of awakening. Firmly holding the flag of jihad in their hands, Muslims in Kashmir have committed to retaliate with gun every aggression by tyrant Indian invaders”.
It said "jihad with the aid of Allah was the only way to liberate Kashmir”.
“For this goal, a new movement of jihad has been founded by the companions of Wani under the leadership of Zakir Musa,” added the statement.
Zakir Musa was close associate of 21-year-old Burhan Wani, who was a top commander of pro-Pakistan militant group Hizbul Mujahideen and was killed in an encounter with security forces on July 8, 2016.
After Burhan’s killing, Zakir was named as new Kashmir chief of Hizb. However, on May 13 this year, he quit Hizb after he aired pan-Islamic views and warned to hang Hurriyat leaders.
Meanwhile, a poster of radical group Hizbul Tahrir in Wilayay Pakistan had come up at Press Colony in city centre Lal Chowk today.
“Khilafah (caliphate) was necessary for liberation of Kashmir and only the caliphate would rid us of the curse of a Westernised ruling elite and mobile our armed forces for liberation of Kashmir,” read the poster.
It asked the Pakistan armed forces to help Hizbul Tahrir in helping end “occupation in Kashmir” and establishing the second caliphate and fighting aggression against the Muslim people.