Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen (TuM) was one of the front-ranking local jihadi outfits in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). It was formed in June 1990 by Yunus Khan, a close confident of Mohammad Abdullah Tairi, ex-president of the J&K Jamiat Ahle Hadith.
Like other jihadi organisations, the TuM also stands for merger of J&K with Pakistan. The outfit also claims to be the only organisation in the Kashmir Valley that is working as a Salafist group besides getting involved in jihadi activities. The TuM, apart from its jihadi activities, is also engaged in propagation of its version of Islam.
The organisation structure of the TuM is composed of management and military wings. The management wing is headed by an amir (chief ) and his team, consisting of naib amir, operational chief, military advisor and intelligence chief. Under the military wing are the divisional commanders and regimental commanders who are based in the field.
The amir of the TuM was Maulana Abdul Gazali who hailed from Srinagar. Gazali, reportedly, was involved in the sectarian clashes in the Valley. Gazali was succeeded by Sheikh Jamilur Rahman as the amir of the TuM. Jamilur Rahman was believed to have spent a number of years in Pakistan where he played an important part in setting up the Pakistan chapter of TuM. Jamilur Rahman, who is a resident of Srinagar, is also the general secretary of the United Jihad Council (UJC) based in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK).
The group mostly operates in and around Srinagar, Kupwara, Pulwama, Anantnag and Poonch. It is linked with the TuM Pakistan which has a training camp called Abdullah bin Mubarak in Muzaffarabad where arms training is imparted to its cadres. The arms training is given under the supervision of Abu Hamza, an expert in military training. In addition to military training, the trainees are also imparted eight days Tablighi course.
One of the sources claimed that the TuM has been working through a social organisation called the Welfare Organisation for Kashmiri Muslims. It is, however, important to mention that the Welfare Organisation for Kashmiri Muslims has been instrumental in collecting funds from foreign sources.
The TuM was able to set up an operation base in Kathmandu from where it used to infiltrate its cadres into India through its open border with Nepal. In addition, Kathmandu was also used as the base for hawala transactions. This link was closed following the arrest of Mohammad Safi, First Secretary in Pakistan Embassy in Kathmandu, who was reportedly engaged in providing funds to visiting Kashmiris.
So far its alliances with other groups are concerned, the TuM, being an Ahle Hadith Tanzeem, is close to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and has been conducting joint operations against the Indian security forces. It is also a member of UJC and has also been associated with the Amanullah faction of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). In the mid-1990s, the TuM established links with youth wing of the Ahle Hadith Bangladesh to carry out trans-border operations.
Besides the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) which has been funding the outfit through LeT, the outfit is also getting financial help from many countries in the Gulf, as well as Pakistan and Bangladesh, and also from Muslims settled in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). The Jeddah-based Al Harmain Islamic Foundation, which is engaged in missionary and welfare activities, has also been providing funds to the outfit.
At present, in terms of militant activities, the TuM is not very active. So far the present organisational strength of the TuM is concerned, it has weakened over the period of time. One of the major reasons for the weakening of the TuM is the infighting among the leaders. At the same time, the arrest and killing of top leaders of the TuM after 1996 has further weakened it.