The United States and the United Nations have designated Pakistan's Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, or HUJI, as a foreign terrorist organization. Moreover, HUJI leader Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri was named a "specially designated global terrorist." These actions require all U.N. member states to implement an asset freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo against this group and individual.
According to Ambassador Daniel Benjamin, U.S. State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism, "the linkages between HUJI and al-Qaida are clear, and [these] designations convey the operational relationship between these organizations."
Harakat-ul Jihad Islami's area of operation extends throughout South Asia, with its terrorist operations focused primarily in India and Pakistan. The group's relationship with al-Qaida flourished after the Taliban's rise in Afghanistan. It provided fighters for the Taliban in Afghanistan and training of HUJI members in al-Qaida training camps.
HUJI has carried out a number of terrorist attacks. In March 2006, HUJI was responsible for the suicide bombing of the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, which killed 4 people and injured 48 others. HUJI is also responsible for terrorist attacks in India including the May 2007 Hyderabad mosque attack, which killed 16 and injured 40, and the March 2007 Varanasi attack, which killed 25 and injured 100. In January 2009, a federal grand jury indicted HUJI's leader Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri for terrorism related offenses in connection with a terrorist attack against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark.
As commander of Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, Kashmiri provides support to al-Qaida operations and terrorist attacks against Pakistani government personnel and facilities, including the mid-2009 attack against the offices of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence and the Pakistani police in Lahore, Pakistan that killed 23 people and left hundreds injured. Kashmiri also led HUJI training camps since 2001. In 2009, Kashmiri operated a militant training center Miram Sha, in North Waziristan. He also ordered the October 2009 assassination of the former commander of the Pakistani Special Services Group, General Amir Faisl Alvi.
By designating Harakat-ul Jihad Islami as a terrorist organization and its leader Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri as a terrorist, the U.S. hopes to boost the political will and strengthen the resolve of leaders around the world to confront terrorist threats.
Pakistan's Harakat-ul Jihad Islami, or HUJI, has been designated a foreign terrorist organization.
