Muttahida Jihad Council

The Muttahida Jehad Council (MJC), a conglomerate of Pakistan-based Jehadi outfits, was formed in November 1990 to bring under a single platform all the outfits involved in the terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

The MJC, for long an alliance of 13 Jehadi organizations led by Syed Salahuddin of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), has reportedly been restructured and three Pakistan-based groups, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Al-Badr Mujahideen have been brought into the MJC.

This new adjustment is called Muwakhaat (‘agreement on the basis of brotherhood’) that is aimed at putting an end to the internal differences among the groups waging the Kashmir Jehad.

According to reports, reorganizing the command and control structure of the HM-led MJC was part of a strategy change to enable the Pakistani intelligence to have tighter control over its running.

With the restructuring, no component member of the UJC would now be allowed to launch an attack in J&K, unless approved by the Council.

To this end, most of the smaller groups, which had reportedly become irritants for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), have been merged to reduce the number of their representation in the Jehad Council from thirteen to five.

Al Barq, Tehreek-e-Jehad, Islamic Front, Brigade 313 and the Kashmiri component of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) have been merged to form the Kashmir Freedom Force, which would be led by Farooq Qureshi of the Al Barq.

The Muslim Janbaz Force, Al Jehad Force, Al Fateh Force, Hizbullah and Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen (JuM) have also been merged to form the Kashmir Resistance Force which would be led by Ghulam Rasool Shah.

The headquarters of the MJC is at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). At the time of inception, all the terrorist outfits operating in J&K were required to register with the MJC.

The council aims at joining forces and resources to augment the terrorist operations in J&K. The Muttahida Jehad Council also acts as the primary public voice of the terrorist outfits currently active in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Azam Inquilabi was initially appointed the Chairman of MJC. Subsequently, since he was found to be ineffective in increasing the lethality of the terrorist operations, Tanvir ul Islam replaced him as the chief.

With a view to expanding the terrorist canvas in J&K, the Pakistani establishment is reported to have organized a meeting of the various MJC constituents in December 1995.

Consequent to the meeting, Syed Salahuddin, ‘Supreme Commander’ of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen was appointed the Chief of the conglomerate.

The HM chief was ‘elected’ as the MJC chairman for the fourth time at a meeting in Muzaffarabad on November 6, 1999.

Consequent to the unilateral cease-fire announced by the HM on July 24, 2000, the MJC expelled the outfit from the conglomerate and removed Syed Salahuddin as its chief.

Mohammad Usman, a representative of the Muslim Janbaz Force who was appointed as the acting Chairman, replaced him.

While criticizing the Hizb cease-fire, the MJC said that it was “wastage of sacrifices and passage to servitude”.

MJC rejected the cease-fire with the argument that India had a “history of breaking promises and pacts and that atrocities and excesses by security forces were unabated in Kashmir.”

Following the withdrawal of the cease-fire by the outfit on August 8, efforts began within the conglomerate to re-induct HM.

The outfit was re-inducted and Salahuddin re-appointed as Chairman on October 22, 2000 through ‘voting’ wherein the HM is alleged to have secured a majority vote of eight votes.

The Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen, Al Umar, Al Barq and the Hizb-ul-Momineen are reported to have opposed the re-induction while indicating that the HM should formally admit to its cease-fire being a ‘mistake’ and request for pardon.