militant
The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...
separatist
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...
organization active in both the Indian-administered and Pakistani-administered territories of
Kashmir
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...
Maqbool Bhat
Maqbool Bhat also spelt Maqbool Butt (18 February 1938 – 11 February 1984)
was a Kashmiri separatist leader who migrated to Pakistan-administered Kashmir and founded the militant group National Liberation Front (Jammu Kashmir), National Lib ...
also credited as a co-founder. Originally a militant wing of the
Azad Kashmir Plebiscite Front
The Plebiscite Front in Azad Kashmir,
also called ''Mahaz-i-Raishumari'',Birmingham, England on 29 May 1977; from then until 1994 it was an active Kashmiri
militant
The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...
organization. The JKLF first established branches in several cities and towns of the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe, as well as in the United States and across the Middle East. In 1982, it established a branch in the Pakistani-administered territory of
Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee:
*
*
* and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...
, and by 1987, it had established a branch in the Indian-administered
Kashmir Valley
The Kashmir Valley, also known as the ''Vale of Kashmir'', is an intermontane valley concentrated in the Kashmir Division of the Indian- union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The valley is bounded on the southwest by the Pir Panjal Range and ...
.
After 1994, the JKLF wing in Indian-administered Kashmir, under the leadership of Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik, declared an "indefinite ceasefire" and reportedly disbanded its militant wing. Following this, the organization committed itself to a political struggle in order to achieve its objective of independence for the entire region of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir from both India and Pakistan. However, the JKLF branch in Azad Jammu and Kashmir did not agree with this change of direction and subsequently split off from the JKLF wing in the Kashmir Valley. In 2005, the two groups merged again, retaining the organization's original identity.
Although the JKLF has only
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
anti-terror law
Anti-terrorism legislation are laws with the purpose of fighting terrorism. They usually, if not always, follow specific bombings or assassinations. Anti-terrorism legislation usually includes specific amendments allowing the state to bypass its ...
passed in March 2019—one month after the
Pulwama attack
The 2019 Pulwama attack occurred on 14 February 2019, when a convoy of vehicles carrying Indian security personnel on the Jammu–Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethapora in the Pulwama district ...
by
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed ( ur, , literally "The Army of Muhammad", abbreviated as JeM) is a Pakistan-based: "The JEM is a Pakistan-based, militant Islamic group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in March 2000."
Deobandi: "Deobandis like Masood Azha ...
.
History
JKLF was founded by Amanullah Khan in Birmingham in June 1976 from the erstwhile UK chapter of the '
Plebiscite Front
The All Jammu and Kashmir Plebiscite Front, or Plebiscite Front, was a political party in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that called for a " popular plebiscite" to decide if the state should remain part of India, join Pakistan or become ...
'.
Maqbool Bhat
Maqbool Bhat also spelt Maqbool Butt (18 February 1938 – 11 February 1984)
was a Kashmiri separatist leader who migrated to Pakistan-administered Kashmir and founded the militant group National Liberation Front (Jammu Kashmir), National Lib ...
is often credited as being its co-founder. Khan was born in
Gilgit
Gilgit (; Shina: ; ur, ) is the capital city of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. The city is located in a broad valley near the confluence of the Gilgit River and the Hunza River. It is a major tourist destination in Pakistan, serving as a h ...
, studied in
Srinagar
Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...
and emigrated to Pakistan in 1952. Bhat was born in Kupwara and also emigrated to Pakistan after studying in Srinagar. The duo had earlier formed Jammu Kashmir National Liberation Front (NLF) in the late 1960s, along with
Hashim Qureshi
Hashim Qureshi (born October 1, 1953 in Lal Bazar, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir) is a pro-Kashmiri leader and one of the founding members of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and is now the Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Democratic Liberation ...
. The group carried out the hijacking of Ganga, an Indian Airlines plane flying from Srinagar to Jammu, in January 1971, and diverted it to Lahore. The Pakistani government returned all the passengers and crew to India, and subsequently tried the hijackers and several members of NLF on charges of being Indian agents. Khan was imprisoned in a Gilgit prison during 1970–72, released after protests broke out. Maqbool Bhat was released in 1974, and he crossed over into the Indian-administered Kashmir where he was arrested in a bank robbery.
Amanullah Khan moved to England, where he received the enthusiastic support of the British Mirpuri community. The UK chapter of the Plebiscite Front was converted into the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in May 1977. It also formed an armed wing called the 'National Liberation Army'. Amanullah Khan took charge as the General Secretary of JKLF the following February. With the active support of the British Mirpuris, the group expanded rapidly, setting up branches in Pakistan, Denmark, Holland, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United States. It organised well-attended conventions in Birmingham (1981) and Luton (1982).
In 1979, the JKLF planned to disrupt the international cricket match being played in
Srinagar
Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its natu ...
. The visiting Australian team was guarded with high security and no untoward incidents occurred.
Praveen Swami
Praveen Swami (born 1969) is an Indian journalist and author specialising on international strategic and security issues. He is currently the Group Consulting Editor at Network18 Group. He was the Diplomatic Editor of ''The Daily Telegraph'' new ...
states that the JKLF made plans to bomb the March 1983 conference of non-aligned meeting in New Delhi and to hijack an airliner from New Delhi, both of which were aborted. After the arrival of
Hashim Qureshi
Hashim Qureshi (born October 1, 1953 in Lal Bazar, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir) is a pro-Kashmiri leader and one of the founding members of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and is now the Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Democratic Liberation ...
in the UK in January 1984, another hijacking was planned.
However, on 3 February 1984, members of the National Liberation Army kidnapped the Indian diplomat
Ravindra Mhatre
Ravindra Hareshwar Mhatre was a 48 year old Indian diplomat in the UK who was kidnapped and later killed in Birmingham in 1984 by British Kashmiri militants who were associated with the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front.
Abduction and killing
Ra ...
in Birmingham and demanded the release of Maqbool Bhat as ransom. Amanullah Khan was named as the interlocuter. Unfortunately, the kidnappers panicked at the possibility of a police raid and, allegedly upon Amanullah Khan's instructions, shot the diplomat. India executed Maqbool Bhat six days later, turning him into a martyr and giving JKLF the visibility it lacked earlier. A British court convicted two members of the JKLF for the killing of Mhatre. Hashim Quresi and Amanullah Khan were expelled from the UK.
Kashmir insurgency
Amanullah Khan and Hashim Qureshi returned to Pakistan in 1984, establishing the JKLF headquarters at Muzaffarabad. Pakistan under
Zia ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...
, which was already supporting the Khalistani militants in Punjab, was ready to support an insurgency in Kashmir, and Khan was ready to work with the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Hashim Qureshi, on the other hand, refused and went into exile in Holland. JKLF started political planning and continued till the end of 1987.
Following the allegedly rigged state election in
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to:
* Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent
* Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory
* Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
in 1987, the disaffected youth of the Kashmir Valley started crossing the
Line of Control
The Line of Control (LoC) is a military control line between the Indian and Pakistanicontrolled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary, but serve ...
to Azad Kashmir to obtain arms and training. Khan's JKLF was their natural destination. Scholar Paul Staniland states that the JKLF was "reborn" in the Indian-controlled Kashmir in this period. It was led by young activists from Srinagar and environs, who crossed into Azad Kashmir for arms and training and returned to Srinagar. Yasin Malik, along with Hamid Sheikh, Ashfaq Wani and Javed Ahmad Mir, formed the core group — dubbed the "HAJY" group — of the JKLF militants in the Kashmir Valley. The enormity of popular support received for their call for independence surprised them. Within two years, the JKLF in the Valley emerged as the "vanguard and spearhead of a popular uprising" against the Indian state.
The JKLF waged a guerrilla war with the Indian security forces, kidnapping of Rubiya Sayeed, the daughter of Indian Home Minister, and targeting attacks on the government and security officials. In March 1990, Ashfaq Wani was killed in a battle with Indian security forces. In August 1990, Yasin Malik was captured in a wounded condition. He was imprisoned until May 1994. Hamid Sheikh was also captured in 1992 but released by the Border Security Force to counteract the pro-Pakistan guerrillas. By 1992, the majority of the JKLF militants were killed or captured.
A pro-independence JKLF was not in Pakistan's interest. Pakistan is believed to have accepted the collaboration with JKLF only as a "necessary compromise," because the Islamist groups did not yet have currency in the Kashmir Valley. However, the cadres of Islamist groups were also trained in the JKLF training camps in Azad Kashmir. This quickly led to a dilution of the JKLF's nationalist ideology. Independence and Islam became interchangeable slogans. The Islamist attacks that ensued on Kashmiri Pandits, liberal women in general, liquor shops and beauty parlours were never condemned by the JKLF. According to Hasim Qureshi, such outrages were "official Pakistan policy" and the policy was endorsed by the Islamic Right as well as the Amanullah Khan's JKLF. "The ISI ran this movement on
communal
Communal may refer to:
*A commune or also intentional community
* Communalism (Bookchin)
* Communalism (South Asia), the South Asian sectarian ideologies
*Relating to an administrative division called comune
* Sociality in animals
*Community owne ...
lines right from the beginning," said Qureshi, "and for that Amanullah and his underlings became its agents."
Transition to peaceful struggle
By 1992, the majority of the JKLF militants were killed or captured and they were yielding ground to pro-Pakistan guerilla groups such as the
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen
Hizbul Mujahideen, also spelled Hizb-ul-Mujahideen ( ar, حزب المجاھدین, ), is an Islamist militant organization operating in the Kashmir region. Its goal is to separate Kashmir from India and merge it with Pakistan.
*
*
*
It i ...
, strongly backed by the Pakistani military authorities. Further encroachment by pan-Islamist fighters infiltrating into the Valley from Pakistan changed the colour of the insurgency. Pakistan ceased its financial support to the JKLF because of its pro-independence ideology.
After release from prison on bail in May 1994, Yasin Malik declared an indefinite ceasefire of the JKLF. However, according to him, JKLF still lost a hundred activists to Indian operations. Independent journalists mentioned three hundred activists were killed. They were said to have been compromised by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen members, who informed their whereabouts to the security forces.
Malik's call for peaceful struggle was unacceptable to Amanullah Khan, who removed him as the president of JKLF. In return, Malik expelled Khan from the chairmanship. Thus JKLF had split into two factions. The Pakistan government recognised Yasin Malik as the leader of JKLF, which further complicated the situation.
Ellis and Khan state that, during the Azad Kashmir elections in 1996, JKLF commanded more support than all the traditional parties, even though it was not allowed to contest elections due to its pro-Independence stance.
Splits and reunification
The JKLF split into two factions after the group based in Indian-administered Kashmir led by Yasin Malik publicly renounced violence in 1995. Their counterparts in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, led by Amanullah Khan refused to do so, thereby precipitating a split in the party.
Since 1995, Yasin Malik has renounced violence and calls for strictly peaceful methods to come to a settlement on the Kashmir issue Yasin Malik also considers the Kashmiri Pandits, about 400,000 Hindus who were driven out of Kashmir after violent attacks by the separatists presently staying in refugee camps in Jammu and other Indian cities, to be an integral part of Kashmiri society and has insisted on their right of return.
Yasin Malik said,
"We want our Kashmiri Pandit mothers, sisters and brothers to come back. It is their land. They have every right to live in it as we do. This is the time that Kashmiri Muslims must play a constructive role so that we can restore the culture for which we are famous all over the world."
In 2002, in an interview to Reuters, Amanullah Khan blamed Pakistani backed non-Kashmiri Muslim militants for having harmed his cause.
"I've been saying for the last two to three years that (non-Kashmiri militants) are changing the Kashmir freedom struggle into terrorism."
After the December 2001 attack on Indian Parliament, Amanullah's name figured in the list of 20 wanted terrorists India provided to Pakistan to be extradited for various terrorism-related offences. In January 2002, Amanullah Khan offered to surrender to Indian authorities provided an "international court issued a verdict against him".
In 2005, India allowed Yasin Malik to visit Pakistan for the first time. The two leaders, Malik and Khan seized the opportunity to meet each other in Pakistan. In June 2005, a decade after the split, Malik and Khan agreed to reunite the JKLF. The JKLF in Pakistan-administered Kashmir is currently under the leadership of Sardar Saghir Ahmad.
In December 2005, some senior members of the JKLF separated from Yasin Malik and formed a new JKLF with Farooq Siddiqi ("Farooq Papa") as its Chairman along with Javed Mir, Salim Nannaji and Iqbal Gundroo, later joined by former militant Bitta Karate. Lately Tahir Mir, former chief of Students Liberation Front, too parted ways with Malik and joined JKLF headed by Farooq Papa. Kashmir watchers think that Yasin Malik's shifting policy of seeking an internal solution with India after its alleged secret meeting with the
Prime Minister of India
The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...
led to the secession of its senior leaders. Farooq Papa supports the involvement of the European Union in resolving the dispute, and has called on EU officials to follow up the visit of an ad hoc European parliament delegation to Kashmir in 2004.