United Jihad Council dissolved temporarily; Former Governor Lt. Gen. Sinha criticizes the government’s “warped approach” on pension benefits to families of killed terrorists
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  • Reports noted that the United Jihad Council (UJC), a Pakistan-based conglomerate of militant groups active across the Kashmir Valley, has been ‘temporarily’ dissolved with its leaders going underground in the wake of the crackdown on Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and other banned terrorist outfits. The UJC comprises the Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Ansar, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Jihad, Al-Barq, Ikhwan-ul-Mussalmin and the Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen. An unnamed commander of one of the militant groups in the UJC told a leading daily that "following the Mumbai attacks and the subsequent tension between Pakistan and India, the United Jihad Council has decided to remain silent."

    The Pakistan Government has launched a crackdown on leaders of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and arrested several militants, including Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, after the UN Security Council declared JuD, the front organisation of LeT, a terrorist group on December 111. The UNSC also declared as terrorists its four top leaders, including JuD chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and the suspected Mumbai attacks mastermind Lakhvi. The UN Sanctions Committee has since 2005 considered LeT as a terrorist organisation affiliated with the al-Qaeda. The US and the European Union have already banned the LeT2.

    Meanwhile, former J and K Governor Lt. Gen.(Retd) S.K. Sinha slammed the pension benefits being given to the families of Kashmiri insurgents killed in encounters, calling it a “warped approach” of the government of India which helped project India’s image as a soft state. In a hard hitting interview with Gulf News on November 1, Gen. Sinha called for “a healing touch for the victims of terrorism rather than the terrorists3.”

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