Imtiaz Alam, third-ranking top terrorist commander of Pakistan-based terrorist group Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and a close confidante of its chief Syed Salahuddin, has been shot dead by two gunmen in Rawalpindi.
He was shot from a point-blank range outside a shop in the late hours of Monday. Pakistan’s spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has ordered an inquiry into his killing, as per credible sources.
Imtiaz Alam alias Haji, a nom-de-guerre of Bashir Ahmad Peer, is a native of a small village in Babarpora area of Kupwara, Kashmir. He joined HM in the early 90s and crossed the line of control (LoC) in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1993-94.
A trusted man of HM chief Salahuddin, he initially worked closely with ISI in the infiltration of men and arms from across the border in Jammu and Kashmir.
After General Musharraf announced an end to the cross-border infiltration into J&K in 2002, Alam continued working with ISI to ensure continuous infiltration. In 2006 and 2007, he stepped up his activities in cross-border infiltration as ISI sent more than 250 terrorists from across the border in those twin years.
He was finally detained by Pakistani Military Intelligence in 2007, when much to their surprise, Alam managed to send a group of 12 HM terrorists into Kashmir without their knowledge. The group was supposed to reinforce the ranks of then HM commander Sajad Dar who was primarily operating out of North Kashmir. Within days, he was released from detention at the behest of ISI.
A fierce loyalist of Salahudin, Alam worked tirelessly to keep the rank and file of HM intact when fissures within the terrorist outfit emerged. He was promoted to launch commander and oversaw infiltration activities at the Neelum valley launch pad. Subsequently, he was inducted into the Shura (decision-making body) council of the United Jihad Council.
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Apart from infiltration attempts, he was also involved in a number of online propaganda groups to further unite cadres of HM, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and other groups for the furtherance of terror activities in J&K.
He was also involved in routing funds for terror activities in J&K. According to sources, Alam had routed more than ₹80 crores of terror funds into J&K through his hawala network. He was also responsible for the fund management of the United Jihad Council (UJC) – an amalgamation of 13 terror organizations under the command of Salahudin.
Infightings within the ranks of HM intensified in 2014. At the beginning of 2015, dreaded HM commander Qayoom Najar from North Kashmir who was active since 1999 broke away from HM and launched his own terror outfit. By the end of 2015, he crossed over to PoK and met Salahudin to sort out differences. In 2017 while infiltrating back, Najar was killed in an encounter in the Uri sector of Kashmir. The tip-off about his movement had come from across the border, according to sources. It is believed that the tip-off was sent to Indian security forces on instructions of Alam.
In 2018, intelligence agencies unearthed a plot of penetration of HM terrorists into JK police ranks. Call interceptions revealed that “Hizbul’s local operators in the border areas were discussing with their leadership in Pakistan about the posting of certain police officers”.
The details emerged after tapping the phone conversation between Alam – HM’s launching commander and Salahudin’s bodyguard Anas Shakeel.
After the telephonic intercepts, “the Indian agencies found out that Alam was in regular touch with high-ranking Pakistani Army and ISI officers”. In the same year, Hafiz Sayeed-led LeT and Masood Azhar-led Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) had requested the ISI top brass to replace Salahudin with Alam as HM chief. However, ISI didn’t take up that request.
In 2019, while intercepting another call, Alam was caught boasting of playing a role in the elimination of another dreaded terrorist Zakir Musa, the founder of Ansar Ghazwa-ul-Hind (AGUH) in Jammu and Kashmir. Musa had broken away from HM in 2017 and founded AGUH in Kashmir. In a 17-minute phone conversation intercepted by security agencies near Lipa Valley, Alam had revealed plans of sending HM cadres disguised as AGUH cadres to carry on terror activities. The plan failed as most of the AGUH cadre was eliminated by the security forces in the valley in subsequent years. In October 2022, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) designated Imtiaz Alam as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
As Pakistan was enlisted into the grey list of FATF, the theatre of insurgency changed in the valley. Old terror outfits were rebranded into new ones, but by then Al-Badr started playing a dominant role in UJC. HM was sidelined by ISI and terror funding was diverted away from HM into Al-Badr for renewed terror activities in J&K. According to intelligence reports, UJC chief Salahuddin had a narrow escape an IED blast near Islamabad in 2020. Alam was believed to be accompanying Salahudin at that time.
As the internal rift widens in POJK to take complete control of UJC and its funds after ousting the ageing and now deemed ineffective Salahudin, the rival groups found Alam to be a stumbling block. Both Javaid Sheikh and Amir Khan, the deputy HM chiefs in POJK are eyeing the top slot and with the elimination of Alam, one among the two can fall next to the bullets of inter-rivalry among the terror outfits.