Hizb seems headed for split as top commander dissociates from group
Hizbul Mujahideen, a terror outfit which has been fighting for Jammu and Kashmir's annexation to Pakistan since 1989, on Saturday seemed to be heading towards a vertical split with its valley-based commander Zakir Moosa dissociating himself from the outfit.
A fresh audio tape purportedly carrying his voice appeared in the social media in which the engineering-studentturned militant, Moosa, said that he was not representing Hizbul Mujahideen anymore. "Hizbul Mujahideen has said that we have nothing to do with the statement of Moosa. So, if Hizbul Mujahideen doesn't represent me then I also don't represent them.
From on Saturday onwards, I have no association with Hizbul Mujahideen," Moosa said hours after Pakistan-occupied Kashmirbased spokesman of the outfit had distanced the group from Moosa's statement on Friday in which he had threatened Kashmiri separatist leaders with dire consequences if they did not refrain from using the Kashmir issue for political gains.
Moosa was made commander of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen after the death of the outfit's poster boy Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8 last year.
"I stand by my speech and by my message. It doesn't bother me what others say but I stand by my speech. I have not said anything against Syed Ali Shah Geelani but my statement was only against those individuals who talk about freedom (of Kashmir) for a secular state," he said.–PTI