Al Umar Mujahideen

Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar
Born	1967

Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar (born 1967, also known as Mushtaq Latram ) is a Kashmiri militant belonging to the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. He was arrested in India and released as a result of the hostage swap following the Indian Airlines flight 814 hijacking. He is reportedly arrested in Pakistan in 2002.

Zargar grew up in the Nowhatta area of Srinagar in downtown Kashmir Valley. He was motivated to militancy in 1988 by Ashfaq Majeed Wani his first commander in chief and joined JKLF under Wani. After death of Ashfaq in march 1990 he had ideological differences with the other leadership of JKLF followed by Ashfaq Majeed Wani, and later founded his own pro pakistan organisation Al-Umar Mujahideen after the death of Wani. Ashfaq Majeed Wani is believed to be the godfather of all separatists movement heads such as Hurriyat, Hizbul Mujahideen and others. It was Ashfaq Majeed Wani who is considered the father of armed insurgency in Kashmir.

After Zargar returned to India in 1989 after getting training in PaK under Ashfaq Majeed Wani. After Wanis death when one of his suggestions was not accepted by Hamid Sheikh and Yasin Malik, he later formed a group of his own aimed to annex Jammu and Kashmir Al-Umar Mujahideen (HUM) (the commandment of the Mujahidin) in 1991. It is widely believed that more and more members of JKLF started their own organisations because of the split after the death of Ashfaq Majeed Wani. All wanted to work and were working under Ashfaq Majeed Wani but due to his death there was no unity in other members so all of them started theie own groups after having ideological differences.

On 12 December 1989 Zargar was one of the members who carried out kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed under the leadership of Ashfaq Majeed Wani. Rubaiya was the daughter of the newly appointed Home Minister of India Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The kidnappers demanded the release of five of their comrades in exchange for Rubaiya Sayeed’s release. The government accepted their demands and freed the mujahids.

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