On July 2, a few days after the U.S. designated Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist, the Hizbul Mujahideen chief held a press conference in Muzaffarabad, the capital of the Pakistan-held Kashmir. Salahuddin has been on India’s most wanted list for a long time, but in Muzaffarabad, he’s seen as a hero by many. When he arrived for the press conference in his vehicle, it was showered with petals and the 71-year-old militant chief came out of the sun roof to greet his supporters.
“Donald Trump’s decision will be thrown out if anyone challenges it in American courts,” he said, referring to his new global terrorist designation. “No other Western nation has endorsed what this crazy Donald Trump has done.” Later on July 9, to commemorate the death anniversary of Burhan Wani, a commander of Hizbul Mujahideen who was killed in an encounter on July 8, 2016, Salahuddin led a rally in the city organised by activists of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed. “The promise to support Kashmiris through diplomatic, moral and political means alone will not work. Pakistan should provide us military support,” he said.
Another speaker at the event was Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki, a close aide of Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, an internationally-designated terrorist who has been under detention since early this year. “Accept the greetings on behalf of a detainee (Hafiz Saeed) and I also brought a group of young men to work under you. They are ready to crush India,” Makki told Salahuddin at the gathering. Both the press conference and rally were held in defiance of international pressure. Salahuddin and his allies know that they can still move around freely in Pakistan with anti-India slogans.
Salahuddin is known to have regular interactions with journalists. This writer had interviewed him for the Pakistani magazine Herald in 2000. Then he lived in a house in Sector G-9/3 of Islamabad, where he remained for a decade in the protection of heavily armed guards. In the second week of July, Umer Farooq, a journalist with Dawn TV, went to interview him. Mr. Farooq was told to come to a Kashmiri magazine office behind a sprawling park named after Nawaz Sharif in Rawalpindi.
‘No terror link’
As he began the interview, Salahuddin reiterated his position that he is fighting for “the freedom of Kashmir”. “Hizbul Mujahideen has nothing to do with international terror organisations like the Islamic State or al-Qaeda. These terror outfits have no presence in Kashmir. We have no links with the Taliban either. By declaring us as terrorists, there will be hardly any takers in the international community except for India and the U.S.,” he said. When asked whether the leadership of militancy in Kashmir was slipping away from the hands of old guards like him, he said that was Indian propaganda. “I am still in control of freedom struggle.”
The Pakistani government also doesn’t seem to be much bothered about the U.S. move on Salahuddin. Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz said the U.S. decision was not of much significance. A UN action would have forced other member-countries to take steps to curb the activities of designated terrorists.
Amir Rana, director of the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies in Islamabad, believed that Salahuddin’s case is different from that of Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar, the founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. “Since Salahuddin had been semi-recognised by India for his unilateral ceasefires and Kashmir talks in 2000s, it will be difficult for India to take the case to the UN as was done in the case of Saeed and Azhar,” he said.
