Fazlur Rehman Khalil

Fazlur Rehman Khalil (Urdu: فضل الرحمن خليل c. 1963) is Pakistani Islamic scholar and former mujahideen jihadist leader, who is the founder of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and is the current leader of both the Difa-e-Pakistan Council and Ansar-ul-Umma, which is accused of being a front organization of the banned HuM.^[1][2][3][4]

He also runs the Jamia Khalid Bin Walid, a Islamic seminary located in Islamabad’s Golra district.^[5]

He is sanctioned as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List by the United States Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control; where he is listed as a Mawlānā and Qāriʾ born in 1963 in Pakistan with addresses in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.^[6][4] Khalil was also suspected of having masterminded the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814.^[7][8]

He is considered to be close to the Afghan Taliban^[9][10] and former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.^[3]

Fazal ur Rehman was born into a Pashtun family in 1963 in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan.^[11]

Khalil became involved in the Soviet Afghan War in 1981 after abandoning his studies at the Jamia Naumania madrassa in Dera Ismail Khan at the age of 16.^[12]

During the war, he was a involved within the militias led by prominent mujahideen commanders Jalaluddin Haqqani and Yunus Khalis. His time in Afghanistan also marked the beginning of his significant and enduring association with Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, whom he met during the conflict.^[12]

He later returned to Pakistan and completed his Dars-e-Nizami studies at Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia.^[9]

In 1980, He co-founded Harakat-ul-Jihad-ul-Islami (HuJI) alongside Qari Saifullah Akhtar; both were graduates of the Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia in Karachi.^[13]

He alongside Sajjad Afghani, later split from HuJI to establish and lead a splinter group, Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen (HuM).^[14]

In February 2000, He stepped down as emir of HuM and his second-in-command, Farooq Kashmiri, assumed leadership of the group.^[15][14]

He was a signatory of the February 1998 fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri under the banner of the "World Islamic Front." This declaration, titled "Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders," is widely considered the founding manifesto of al-Qaeda.^[1][9]

During an interview with the BBC News, Khalil denied any continued association with militant groups, asserting that such ties had concluded following the Afghan jihad. He refused to speak about Al Qaeda's 1998 fatwa, stating he would only discuss the matter if the interviewers could present him with a copy of the document.^[1]

Khalil was suspected of having masterminded the December 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814.^[7][8] Five hijackers from his group, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, commandeered the flight en route from Kathmandu to Delhi, forcing it to land in Kandahar, Afghanistan.^[16] The crisis ended with the Indian government releasing three imprisoned militants including Masood Azhar, a former associate of Khalil, who however did not rejoin Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.^[17][18] Instead, he founded the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in early 2000.^[19][20][21]

He was first detained by Pakistani authorities in May 2004. He was held for six months before being released due to insufficient evidence.^[22]

His case however resurfaced in June 2005 after Hamid and Umer Hayat, reported to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that they had trained at an jihadist camp run by him.^[22] In the wake of these allegations, Rehman evaded capture by going into hiding.^[23]

In In March 2006, Rehman and his driver were abducted by eight armed assailants from a mosque in Tarnol, approximately three miles northwest of Islamabad, while they were performing the Asr prayer. After being held for five hours and beaten, they were released on the outskirts of the city.^[24]

He was considered a close friend of the Lal Masjid's leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi. This relationship led the Pakistani government to task him with negotiating an end to the Red Mosque standoff in July 2007.^[25][26]

In 2013, during a hearing of the murder case of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Khalil recorded his statement to the court. He stated that Ghazi was amenable to a peaceful settlement and that he had persuaded him to agree to the government's demands, culminating in a five-point agenda to end the standoff and that Ghazi had also agreed to surrender, yet Operation Sunrise was carried out regardless.^[27][28][29]

In 2012, he returned to public prominence by joining the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), a coalition of right-wing political and religious parties.^[1][30]

The coalition, which comprised various right-wing and religious parties, was established in the wake of the Salala incident, when a NATO airstrike killed several Pakistani military personnel. Among its constituent members were Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat.^[31][32]