Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HUJI) (Movement of Islamic Holy War)

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Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HUJI) (Movement of Islamic Holy War)

Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HUJI)—Movement of Islamic Holy War—is a Sunni extremist group that follows the Deobandi tradition of Islam, and was founded in 1980 in Afghanistan to fight in the Jihad against the Soviets. It is also affiliated with the Jamiat Ulema-I-Islam Fazlur Rehman faction (JUI-F) and the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam. The group, led by chief commander Amin Rabbani, is made up primarily of Pakistanis and foreign Islamists who are fighting for the liberation of Kashmir and its accession to Pakistan. HUJI has conducted a number of operations against Indian military targets in Kashmir, and are linked to the Kashmiri militant group al-Faran that kidnapped five Western tourists in Kashmir in July 1995; one was killed in August 1995 and the other four reportedly were killed in December of the same year.

HUJI strength is unknown, but intelligence services estimate that there may be several hundred members operating in Pakistan and Kashmir. HUJI trained members in Afghanistan until Operation Enduring Freedom began in the fall of 2001.

█ FURTHER READING:

ELECTRONIC:

CDI (Center for Defense Information), Terrorism Project. CDI Fact Sheet: Current List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations. March 27, 2003. <http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/terrorist.cfm> (April 17, 2003).

Central Intelligence Agency. World Factbook, 2002. <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/> (April 16, 2003).

Taylor, Francis X. U.S. Department of State. "Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001," Annual Report: On the Record Briefing. May 21, 2002 <http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/rm/10367.htm> (April 17, 2003).

U.S. Department of State. Annual Reports. <http://www.state.gov/www/global/terrorism/annual_reports.html> (April 16, 2003).