Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar
Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar is a separatist Islamist leader and militant active in the Kashmir Insurgency, and founder of the Islamic terrorist militant outfit, Al-Umar-Mujahideen. He spent considerable time in a prison and was released in the aftermath of the Indian Airlines flight 814 hijacking. He currently lives in Pakistan.
Early life and career
Zargar was born in 1967 in the Nowhatta area of Srinagar, in the Kashmir Valley of the erstwhile Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, into a Kashmiri Muslim family. He joined the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front in 1988, encouraged by its founder Ashfaq Majeed Wani, and allegedly left for Pakistani-occupied Jammu and Kashmir for combat training. He returned to Indian Kashmir in 1989.On 8 December 1989 Zargar was one of the members who carried out kidnapping of Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the newly appointed Home Minister of India Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. The kidnappers demanded the release of five of their comrades in exchange for Rubaiya Sayeed’s release. The government accepted their demands.
After Wani's death in March 1990, he fell out with Hamid Sheikh and Yasin Malik, Wani's successors, and in 1991 formed his own militant group which he called Al-Umar Mujahideen.
Over the years, at least three dozen murder cases were registered against Zargar in Srinagar, including for alleged killings of high-ranking Indian officers. Zargar was arrested on 15 May 1992 and imprisoned. He was released from jail on 31 December 1999 as part of the Indian Airlines Flight 814 hostage deal and provided safe passage to Pakistan. Shortly after Zargar revived Al-Umar Mujahideen in Muzaffarabad.
Zargar was reportedly arrested by Pakistani authorities in 2002 but as of 2007, he was living in Muzaffarabad without any restrictions.
In March 2023, the Indian government declared Zargar an officially designated terrorist and the group Al-Umar-Mujahideen as a terrorist organization.