United Jihad Council

The United Jihad Council, also known as the Muttahida Jihad Council (MJC), is an umbrella organisation formed by the Pakistan Army for unified command and control over the anti-Indian militant groups operating in Jammu and Kashmir. It was formed in the summer of 1994 and is currently headed by Syed Salahuddin, the leader of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. The organisation was created to unify and focus efforts of various armed militant groups fighting against the Indian rule in Kashmir. This made distribution of resources like arms, ammunition, propaganda materials and communications more streamlined. It also made it easier to coordinate and pool resources of various militant groups to collect information, plan operations and strike at targets of military importance inside Indian administered Kashmir.

The militant group has 13 affiliates. Some of the group members are: Harakat-ul-Ansar, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Jihad, Al-Barq, Al-Badr, Ikhwan-ul-Mussalmin, Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen. By early 1999, as many as fifteen organisations were affiliated with the Council, though of these only five were considered influential: Lashkar-e-Toiba, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Badr and Tehrik-i-Jihad. Many of these organisations are recognised as terrorist organisations by the United States and the UN.

The United Jihad Council emerged as the primary public voice of the Mujahideen in the Kargil offensive. The United Jihad Council, including four other units fighting in the Kargil mountains said the guerrillas would not leave the area because it was their homeland. However they agreed to back up after the then US President Bill Clinton personally mediated in the situation.

It is fairly common now for UJC/MJC members to frequently address public gatherings, publish materials and recruit new fighters inside Azad Kashmir. State patronage from the autonomous Kashmiri government and protection from Pakistani security forces helps the free movement of men, materials and resources. UJC announced several unilateral ceasefires in the Kashmir region and subsequently withdrew because they were not reciprocated from the Indian side. In view of the recent mass unarmed uprising in Kashmir against the Indian rule, UJC has imposed moratorium on strikes on military targets in local areas.

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