Harkat ul-Ansar

2/3/2007

Founded in 1993, Harkat ul-Ansar was a Pakistani government-sponsored terrorist group fighting to separate Kashmir from India. The ultimate goal of the Order of Helpers was to increase the territory under Pakistani control. Jammu and Kashmir are the only states in India where the majority of the population are Muslims. That said, Hindus treat Muslims much better than Muslims do. But then again, the same thing can be said for Jews in regards to their superior treatment of Muslims vis a vie Islamic regimes.

Harkat ul-Ansar was created by and for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Two Islamic terrorist groups which had participated in the Great Jihad in Afghanistan against the Soviets were merged. Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami (Order of the Islamic Jihadists) and Harkat ul-Mujahideen (Order of the Holy Warriors) became Harkat ul-Ansar. Pakistan's ISI provided these killers with funds, arms, training, and direction. While it is a surprise to most Americans who have been conditioned to believe that Pakistan is an ally, the fundamentalist Islamic state is actually today's most prolific sponsor of terrorists.

The favored tactics of Harkat ul-Ansar included terrorist bombings, kidnappings for ransom, political assassinations, and armed attacks on Hindu civilians living in Kashmir. In addition to being born out of Islamic conquest in Afghanistan, the Order of Helpers was also political. They became the terrorist wing of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islami, the fundamentalist, and majority Islamic political party in Pakistan.

In 1997, the United States designated the HUA as a terrorist organization, alleging that the group was associated with Osama bin Laden. That was particularly laughable, not with regard to the group's association with al-Qaeda which was genuine, but because Harkat ul-Ansar was an appendage of the Pakistani regime - America's alleged ally.

After their terrorist troop was labeled bad by their primary military and aid benefactors, Pakistan's ISI dissolved the Order of Helpers by splitting the jihadist network back into its component parts: the Order of Islamic Jihadists (Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami) and the Order of Holy Warriors (Harkat ul-Mujahideen). While not particularly clever, the slight of hand was sufficient to fool the ignorant.

After the attacks of September 11th (which were in large part funded by Pakistan's ISI) and the emergence of Pakistan as a "key ally" in the mythical "war on terror," the state-sponsored terrorists lost some of their overt support and had to rely more heavily on Islamic political parties and charities for funding.

Fazlur Rahman Khalil, former leader of Harakat ul-Mujahideen, was one of the most important terrorists in Pakistan. Khalil served as the leader of the Harakat ul-Ansar as well before the organization was recast under its original names. He had been a student in the fundamentalist Binori madrassah in Karachi, Pakistan - the same religious school which had trained Mullah Omar of Taliban fame. As an alumnus of Terror University, Khalil maintained strong ties with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He is one of five signatories of bin Laden's famous 1998 fatwa which called on all Muslims worldwide to kill Americans whenever the opportunity arises.

In addition to serving the Pakistani government in his managerial role running the Order of Helpers and Order of Holy Warriors, Fazlur Rahman Khalil served as a jihadist recruiter and terrorist trainer for hundreds of Taliban militants. In reality, Khalil established and ran the extensive network of terrorist training camps attributed to al-Qaeda throughout Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kashmir.

To appease the United States, Rahman Khalil was "arrested" in May 2004 by the Pakistani government for his role in transporting Pakistani militants into Afghanistan in order to assist the Taliban during America's October 2001 invasion. Coddled in a government mansion, the world's most effective terrorist recruiter and trainer was released six months later. The pretense was "lack of evidence," though it was obvious that the whole of the Pakistani junta, from General Musharraf on down, had ulterior motives in releasing him. Second only to bin Laden, Khalil was the most popular religious, political, and military figure in Pakistan. Harming him would have been a death sentence.

In June 2005, two American citizens residing in California, both of whom were Muslims, Hamid Hayat and Umer Hayat, were arrested for their participation in an al-Qaeda plot against Americans. Both men told the F.B.I. that they had received their training in a camp run by Rahman Khalil. While this revived interest in capturing the Pakistani terrorist, like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Islamic scholar's whereabouts are unknown.

But the terrorist didn't work alone. Born in South Punjab, Pakistan in 1976, Matiur Rahman became Rahman Khalil's associate. He rose to prominence in the late 1990s by managing the logistics of Pakistan's various terrorist networks. He was also a zealous recruiter.

The younger Rahman proved himself to be a skilled explosives expert. And he had a talent for passing his destructive knowledge on to wannabe jihadists. In addition to instructing fellow Pakistanis, Rahman trained the most promising Western Muslims to kill en masse.

By September of 2004, Matiur Rahman had become the chief liaison between al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Muslim community. He took over responsibility for the extensive directory of Islamic terrorists which has been dubbed by the Intelligence community as the "Rolodex of Jihad." The file contains a massive listing of the names, affiliations, skillsets, and contact information of every Muslim trained by Pakistan, al-Qaeda, or the Taliban in the world. This directory has served as a database for selecting volunteers for terrorist operations in Asia, Europe, America, and Africa.