NEW DELHI: For most people in India, the Al-Badr was till yesterday an unknown name. But for the counter-terrorism services, it has, for over a year, been an emerging nightmare.

Named after the 624 A.D. battle in which Prophet Muhammad registered a historic victory over the superior forces of the Meccan tribe of Quraish, the Al-Badr traces its origins to a quasi-fascist militia set up by Pakistan's armed forces in 1970.

Made up of cadre of the Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, the Islami Jamiat-e-Tulaba, the terror group was responsible for large-scale massacres of nationalists, communists and members of the religious minorities during the Bangladesh war of liberation.

Reinvented role

After 1979, the Al-Badr reinvented itself as a part of the jihad funded by the United States against the Soviet Union's forces in Afghanistan. Then, from 1988, its infrastructure was used to train ethnic-Kashmiri recruits to fight Indian forces.

By mid-1990, it was operating as part of the Hizb ul-Mujahideen, then a seven-group coalition. Under its early commanders, who included Afghan jihad veterans Masood Sarfaraz, Syed Saleem Gardezi, Abdul Hamid Fayyaz and Saifullah Khalid, the Al-Badr built up a significant operational presence in the Jammu region, notably Rajouri and Poonch.

However, it parted with the Hizb after the non-combatant leadership of the Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan attempted to impose its authority over Al-Badr commanders. In 1997, the cadre of the two groups engaged in a bloody firefight near Muzaffarabad, which claimed five lives.

After these conflicts, the Al-Badr allied with the Tehreek-i-Islami, a breakaway Jamaat-e-Islami faction, and the Afghan warlord, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In 1999, the Reuters news agency reported that Al-Badr commander Mohammad Nasiruddin held a meeting with Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden near Jalalabad to discuss joint operational strategies.

Many Arab cadre

According to Pakistani analyst Muhammad Amir Rana, the Al-Badr includes a number of Arab cadre. "It has lost 18 Arab mujahideen, coming from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria and Egypt, in occupied Kashmir," Mr. Rana reported in his authoritative 2002 book, A-Z of Jihadi Organisations in Pakistan.

Under the leadership of its present chief, Bakht Zamin Khan, the Al-Badr has sought to expand its overground infrastructure as well. It has built a large seminary and welfare complex on the Rawalpindi-Islamabad road, and played an active role in emergency relief work after the great Kashmir earthquake of 2005.

The Al-Badr is known to have been seeking all-India capabilities for some time. In December 2005, the Jammu and Kashmir police eliminated its central-Kashmir commander, Mohammad Wasim. Perhaps the longest-serving Pakistani national among jihadi groups in the State, Wasim was in the process of setting up terror cells outside the State.

Using documents identifying him as Fayyaz Ahmad Rather, a Srinagar resident with interests in wholesale trade, Wasim had been attempting to set up safe houses and front-businesses for the organisation in New Delhi. Wasim, The Hindu exclusively reported late last year, hoped to use these assets to route funds from Pakistan and shelter operatives sent in for specific missions.

Soon after, in February 2006, the Delhi police arrested alleged Al-Badr operatives Irshad Ali and Mohammad Qamar.

The police claimed that the two, Delhi residents of Kashmiri origin, had been paid Rs. 90,000 to carry out a series of bombings in the capital. Explosives were recovered from their home in northwest Delhi.

Hawala routes

Hawala routes have long been used by the Al-Badr to funnel funds to its units in Jammu and Kashmir. In 2000, for example, authorities in Srinagar held the well-known city businessman, Wasim Khatib, on the charge of funnelling hawala funds to Al-Badr units in the State. Much of Al-Badr's funds is believed to be raised from the ethnic-Mirpuri diaspora in the United Kingdom, as well as members of the community who have large businesses in Karachi.

The Al-Badr closely cooperates with other Pakistan-based jihadi groups operating against India. In March, Bakht Zamin Khan joined Hizb supreme commander Mohammad Yusuf Shah's protests against Pakistan's decision to cut off direct funding to terrorist groups. According to a report in Pakistan's Herald magazine, the Al-Badr till recently received monthly subsidies of Rs. 3,00,000 from the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail