Zakir Moosa: Kashmiri terrorist who escapes security forces disguising as Sikh
Wednesday 12/December/2018 - 02:47 PM
Nahla Abdel Moneim
Indian security services revealed
Thursday that they had received intelligence information that the founder
terrorist of the so-called militant group of the Ansar Ghazawat ul Hind Zakir
Moosa was hiding in the northern province of Punjab. The data are likely to be
located in the areas of Pathinda and Verzebior.
Based on this information, the authorities imposed a state of maximum security
alert in the northern state, and deployed military men in preparation for the
arrest of the Kashmiri militant.
In addition, the relevant authorities published several photographs of Moosa
attached to the walls and streets to encourage citizens to report about him.
The authorities also made his face familiar to the public because of
information indicating that the extremist was wandering around disguised in
traditional Sikh dress.
Who is Zakir?
Zakir Moosa is born in a region of south Kashmir (a region in the northwest of
the Indian subcontinent fighting for possession of India and Pakistan) and his
real name Zakir Rashid Bhatt.
In the fall of 2013, he joined Hizbul Mujahideen (a group that was declared a
terrorist organization by the United States) in August 2017. It was established
in 1989 by Muhammad Ihsan Dar to practice its terrorist activities in Kashmir.
Of course, the troubled political nature of the Kashmir region contributed to
Moosa’s and most of the citizens' tendency to join the terrorist groups
deployed in the region. Thus, in a video posted by an al-Qaeda media channel in
July 2017, Moosa announced the establishment of Ansar Ghazawat ul Hind
terrorist group known as AGH asa branch of al-Qaeda in the region. However,
some recent reports suggest Moosa’s break-up of al-Qaeda and joining Daesh in
2018 exploiting the security situation in the disputed territory.
The Kashmiri looseness
It is normal that the years of conflict and battles affect the transformation
of geographical environments as areas conducive to terrorism. This applies to
the Kashmir region, which India and Pakistan have been grappling with ever
since their separation in 1947. Even the most dangerous terrorist in the
region, Zakir Moosa, is a native of that geography.
The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), in its statistical report issued
yesterday by the Global Terrorism Index (GTI), said that the conflicts in
countries are closely related to the growth of terrorism and extremism, making
Pakistan the fifth most affected country. The index also put India in seventh
place, advancing one point from last year.
