SRINAGAR: The militant outfit in Kashmir Hizbul Mujahideen is confused how to deal with its former commander and now head of Al Qaeda Kashmir cell Zakir Musa, who is based in south Kashmir.
On September 15, five masked men claiming to be Hizb militants in a video message accused Zakir of being behind the killing of militants in the Valley.
Describing Zakir as a ‘traitor’, one of the militants in the video said, “We on behalf of Hizb want to convey to people that from last three months a large number of militants have been killed and none other than Zakir was behind these killings”.
He alleged that Zakir was weakening the “freedom struggle” in Kashmir.
“He (Zakir) is misleading people by claiming to be a ‘mujahideen’. He is working as an Indian agent and facilitating killing of militants. For facilitating killing of top militant commanders, he has taken a huge amount from the government,” the militant said.
The Hizb militants’ statement comes in the backdrop of killing of over 140 militants including seven top commanders of Hizb and Lashkar-e-Toiba in security forces operations in Valley this year so far.
Zakir, a former Hizb commander and close associate of slain Burhan Wani, quit Hizb in May this after differences with leadership of the group over his threat to kill separatist leaders and pledge to fight for imposition of Islamic Shariat in Jammu and Kashmir.
In July this year, Zakir was named as head of Al-Qaeda’s Kashmir cell, “Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind”.
According to police sources, Zakir’s group comprises 15-20 militants and he is hiding in south Kashmir forests.
Most of the militants in his group had deserted Hizb and some are new recruits.
Zakir is gaining “popularity” and every time there is a protest in Valley, people chant pro-Zakir and anti-India slogans.
The pro-Zakir slogans were chanted when a police officer was lynched by a mob outside grand mosque in downtown Srinagar in June this year. Even when Hajj flights did not land at Srinagar airport on first day of return of first Hajj flight from Saudi Arabia earlier this month, people at the airport also chanted pro-Zakir slogans.
Zakir’s pan-Islamic ideology is considered quite dangerous by security forces.
The Hizb posters have also come up in south Kashmir’s Shopian in which Zakir was declared as traitor, who wanted to malign the name of militants and create divisions among militant ranks.
“First he joined militant ranks and later joined hands with Indian government and formed a new outfit. We appeal people that wherever they find Zakir, they should eliminate him,” read the posters.
However, now an audio clip reportedly of Hizb operational chief Riyaz Naikoo has surfaced in which he describes Zakir as brother and says there were no differences between Hizb and Zakir’s group.
He disowned the video of five militants, who had termed Zakir as traitor and called for his death.
“It is a conspiracy to create confusion among people and militants. There can be misunderstandings sometimes but that doesn't mean there are differences among us. We have no differences. We are united and our mission is one,” Naikoo claimed.
As of now, Zakir has not reacted to Hizb’s allegations.
Earlier, after killing of Hizb commander, Sabzar Bhat in an encounter with security forces in May, a video had surfaced in which an unknown militant group had claimed to have given information of Bhat to security forces.
“Whosoever comes in our way of fighting for Shariah (Islamic laws) and comes in way of Zakir, he would meet Sabzar’s fate,” the group had said.