The HM was founded by one Master Ahsan Dar of Patan in North Kashmir in September 1989. The group was formed to marginalise the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). The group is basically a pro-Pakistani group and is a militant outfit of Jamaat-e-Islami in Kashmir (JeIK).
The Pakistani intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), played a vital role as far as the militant activities of the HM are concerned in its initial years.
The HM’s prime objective is the integration of the J&K with Pakistan. The integration process, it believes, can be achieved through Islamisation of J&K and jihad. The HM is against those who stand for independence as the third option. In a hand written statement issued on July 30, 1991, it described the JKLF stand as “childish and highly irresponsible”.
According to the constitutional norms of the HM, the organisation would have a central command led by the amir (chief ) and commander-in-chief. There will also be district-level and local-level commanders.
For better geographical operations, the HM has been divided into five divisions. The central division controls Srinagar; the northern division controls the districts of Kupwara–Bandipora–Baramulla; Anantnag and Pulwama come under the control of southern division; Chenab division controls Doda and Udhampur districts; and Pir Pinjal division controls the Rajouri and Poonch districts.
The command structure of the HM is highly centralised. The supreme commander of the HM is Syed Salahuddin who operates from Muzaffarabad in POJK. Some of the important leaders of the HM are: Ahsan Dar who became first commander chief; Al Badr commander, Bakht Zameen; founder of Hizb-e- Islami, Masood Sarfaraz, Nasir-ul-Islam, Abdul Majeed Dar, Saif-ul-Islam, Ghazi Nasiruddin, Ghazi Shahab-ud-din, Latif Dar, Nasir Ahmad Dar, Talib Lali etc. Factions and divisions among the leaders of the HM have been a common phenomenon.
The HM has also a media department based ar Muree Road, Rawalpindi. It runs a news agency, the Kashmir Press International and a research centre, the Kashmir Information Centre based in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK).
The HM operates from Muzaffarabad in PoJK. It has regularly been targeting Indian security forces stationed in Jammu & Kashmir. Besides, it also killed many prominent political, bureaucrats, moderate religious and secular leaders. In its bid to enforce islamisation in Kashmir, the militant group has proclaimed bans on cinema, advertisement hoardings, entertainment cable television channels, liquor shops and beauty parlours for women. It was also responsible for setting on fire the shrine of Charar-e-Sharif on 11 May 1995.
The Ikhwan comprising of its surrendered militants also gave a support to security forces by killing nearly 2,000 HM militants and commanders. Led by Kukka Parrey, this counter-insurgency force was active in Sonawari-Bandipora, Sareer Khan in Pattan, Nabi Azad in rural Anantnag and Hilal Hider in Anantnag town.
The exact cadre strength of the HM is difficult to know. Different sources cite different figures. Within one year of its formation, the HM had around 10,000 armed cadres mostly trained in Pakistan or PoJK. However, the cadre strength of the HM can be now around 1,000–2,000.10 The cadres recruited by the HM are mostly local Kashmiris and from the PoJK.
Initially a vast training complex for HM known as Badr I and Badr II was established at Jihadwal on the southeast of Zhawara near Khost in Afghanistan.
According to one source,14 in the 1990s, the HM had its training camps in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Islamabad. The ISI played a major role in allowing the newcomers for training, mainly in Kotli and Muzaffarabad.
Some of the main training camps of the HM were: Kotli training camp (in PoJK’s Kotli district); the Gujar Khan Training Centre in Rawalpindi; Mangla Dam camp (for training in swimming-related activities), located on the banks of the Mangla Lake in PoK; Kot Jamial camp (located on the outskirts of Kot Jamial in PoJK’s Bhimber district); Bhimber camp (situated on Gujrat Road in PoJK’s town of Bhimber); Samani camp (located on Mirpur Road); and the Al Markaz camp (located in the basement of a mosque which is three kilometers from central Mirpur). After 9/11, most of these camps were closed following mounting international pressure. The militant group is currently operating two training camps – Garhi Habibullah Camp in Mansehra in KP and Sensa in Kotli (PoJK).
The HM’s link and association with the ISI is very strong. At the same time, the HM also enjoys support of all the groups that are members of the United Jihad Council (UJC), and Syed Salahuddin is heading the UJC. In the initial years, the HM established links with the Afghan militant group; the Hizb-e- Islami headed by Gulbuddin Hekmtiyar and sent some of its cadres to Afghanistan for training with Hizb-i-Islami militants.
HM is also supported by Washington based Kashmir American Council and London based World Kashmir Freedom Movement.
In its initial years of formation, the HM was mostly supported by the ISI for carrying out its militant activities. These days, the HM has a wider network through which it generates its finance. On 3 March 2012, a Delhi court framed charges against a close aide of Hurriyat leader (hardline), Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and three others for allegedly running hawala rackets to finance the militant organisations in the valley. Apart from this, the HM also raises funds through charity and during religious festivals. Extortion is another important source of fund raising for the HM.
Despite the arrest and killing of its top commanders and militants, the HM still remains the biggest indigenous militant outfit.
HM is mostly operating in the areas of Baramulla, Kupwara and Bandipora, Anantnag and Pulwama districts in Kashmir and Poonch, Ramban and Rajouri in Jammu region.
The HM has also been active in threatening the sarpanches at the local level to resign and raise voice against the democratic systems of India.