On 15 September, a poster surfaced in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, stamped by the Hizbul Mujahideen, which decried the group’s erstwhile member Zakir Musa as an Indian agent.
In July, global terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda had announced the formation of its Jammu and Kashmir outfit, named Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind and named Musa its head.
“Musa Is Our Brother”
The poster said that Musa had traded countless militant lives for the Indian authorities to get money. It further goes on to state “this traitor maligned the name of militants and brought divisions into the Mujahideen as well”. At the end, it called for the “total destruction” of Musa by whoever found him.
Two days later, on 17 September, Hizbul’s operational commander Riyaz Naikoo issued a statement, calling Musa his brother and said that the poster plastered all around Shopian was the work of “Indian informers”.
Zakir Musa is our brother. A clip is going viral on social media of Hizbul claiming that Musa is a traitor and an Indian informer. Know that it was not issued by us. It’s by people who’re trying to malign our name.Riyaz Naikoo
The terror outfit’s operational commander goes on to state that the clip going viral calls Musa the killer of “our militant brothers”, which is an “absolute lie”. He states that no militant knows where another is so Musa cannot know their location to be able to reveal them to the Indian informers.
The ones in the clip have no links to Hizbul and have no links with us. They aren’t well-wishers of us or Musa. They are Indian agents and haters of our freedom.
“We Are One. Our Aim Is One. Our Enemy Is One”
On any hatred for Musa, Naikoo said that while their ideologies may differ, they are united and they don’t hate each other.
We are one. Our aim is one. Our enemy is one.
He repeatedly said that Indian organisations are trying to malign Hizbul’s name, especially through the use of social media and Facebook.
Lies are being spread by imposters, especially through social media. They have Facebook pages which look like Islamic pages but in fact they are spreading lies about us and have no sympathy for us. They are being run by Indian agents. We need to be wary of their conspiracies.
He also warned Kashmiris that there are many imposters who assume the identity of Hizbul members and go to people’s homes and threaten them into giving them money in Hizbul’s name.
These informers are in our society who get their information from people. Many times they pose as us (Hizbul), and go to ordinary people and scare them into giving them money. Even civilians have pistols these days and they are using them to threaten people with Hizbul’s name into giving them money.
He said that if anyone uses Hizbul’s name to extort money from people then their photos should be sent to Hizbul to see that justice is served.
“Talking About Hizbul Can Cause Trouble for You and Us”
When you meet a Mujahid and tell people lovingly that they came to your house, it can be intercepted by the Indian agents, so please don’t tell your friends you’ve met Mujahids. These agents talk like they are part of Hizbul or Hizbul sympathisers, when they are not.
Naikoo said that he was thankful to those supporting Hizbul and those who gave their lives to protect militants. He appealed to his sisters (Kashmiri women), to not talk over the phone about militants as it can be intercepted and “can cause trouble for you and for us”.
He ended by saying that the militants are close to their aim for freedom and that they will get it soon.
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