Musa disassociates himself from Hizbul

Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa on Saturday rebelled against his senior commanders based in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) by disassociating himself from the outfit. In the latest six-and-a-half minute audio being shared on social media, Musa says, “(I) cannot sacrifice my life for the establishment of a secular state. From today, I have no association with any outfit. I am on my own. I don’t represent Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.”

The statement came hours after PoK-based spokesperson of the outfit, Saleem Hashmi, termed Musa’s threat to separatist leaders as unacceptable. “Such a statement is unacceptable to us. It reflects the personal opinion of Zakir (Musa). Post Burhan Wani’s martyrdom (sic), the nation and the leadership are united at every front and taking ahead the struggle for freedom and Islam to its end,” Hashmi was quoted by a local news agency as saying.

Musa, who took over the reins from Wani last year, had on Friday threatened to slit the throats of senior separatist leaders and hang them in the city centre, Lal Chowk, if they dared to repeat that Kashmir represented a political and not pan-Islamic struggle.

Musa, who joined militancy after leaving his B Tech course in Chandigarh in 2013, called separatist leaders “hypocrites, infidels and followers of evil”. After Hashmi’s rebuke, Musa released an audio clip asserting that he stands by his earlier message. “So, if Hizb-ul-Mujahideen doesn’t represent me then I also don’t represent them,” he said.

“After my last audio message, lot of confusion is being spread in Kashmir. I stand by my speech and by my message. It doesn’t bother me what others say, but I stand by my speech. But see, I have had not said anything against a particular person or Geelani sahab, but I have said only against that individual who is against Islam and talks about freedom for secular state,” Musa, who is believed to be operating from south Kashmir, asserted.

No links with IS
Musa also says that he has no links with global terror organisations like the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda. “I have no association with IS, al Qaeda. I even don’t know whether they are right or wrong. I don’t have time to research about them,” he said.

But Musa’s audio messages are full of quotes of Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, the US-Yemeni scholar and al Qaeda ideologue who was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in 2011. The authenticity of the audio clips could not be verified. A source, however, said the voice matched with Musa’s earlier video and audio clips.