On Wednesday, February 5th, the Hamas that launched a terror attack on Israel in October 2023 joined hands with the terrorist organizations Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Kashmir. At an event named ‘Kashmir Solidarity and Hamas Operation ‘Al Aqsa Flood’ Conference’ held at the Shaheed Sabir Stadium in Rawalakote, one of the terrorists from JeM announced from the stage that the Hamas and Pakistani terrorist groups have united.
“The ‘Mujahideen of Palestine’ and ‘Mujahideen of Kashmir’ have now united. It’s time to shed blood in Delhi and to separate Kashmir from India,” he threatened.
As per the reports, the event was attended by Talha Saif, brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, Jaish commanders Asghar Khan Kashmiri and Masood Ilyas, and top LeT leaders. Dr Khalid Al-Qadoumi, Hamas representative in Iran, also attended the event making the first Hamas leader’s visit to Kashmir. Apart from this, several Palestinian leaders participated in the event.
It is important to note that Pakistan observes ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ on 5th February and conducts activities that usually push the anti-India agenda. This development reveals Pakistan’s crucial hand in promoting terrorism under the guise of ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day.’ Terrorist organizations like JeM and LeT have launched several terrorist attacks on India, including the 2001 Parliament attack, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and the 2019 Pulwama bombing.
#BREAKING: Hamas joins hands with Jaish e Muhammad and Lashkar e Tayyiba in Rawlakot of Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir. Jaish terrorist announces that Hamas and Pakistani Jihadi groups have united. Jaish gunmen can be seen on stage protecting Hamas leaders from Palestine. pic.twitter.com/p0Vn2rTKwW
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) February 5, 2025
On 7th October 2023, Israel came under one of the worst attacks in recent history after hundreds of Hamas terrorists infiltrated the Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Additionally, Palestinian terrorists also launched massive rocket barrages at southern and central Israel from the Gaza Strip prompting it to declare a ‘state of war’.
The terrorists also held several Israelis hostage including women, children, and the elderly. Around 1300 people were killed in indiscriminate firing, and videos reveal that they had also paraded women bared and bruised on the streets. Several people remained to be held hostage by Hamas, although some of them have been released in recent days in a peace deal.
Until now, the operations of Hamas were only limited to the Middle East, but its recent developments in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and growing links with Pakistan-based terror outfits indicate the increased influence of Hamas in the region nearby. Earlier, in 2023, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh stated that “the Palestine and Kashmir issues had been a litmus test for advocates of human rights.” He had indicated that all the Islamists must unite in support of Palestine and Kashmir. Notably, in June 2024, Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed in Tehran.
Hamas: Emerged out of the Muslim Brotherhood in the region
Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, which means “Islamic Resistance Movement” in English. It was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin who was a Palestinian cleric. After doing Islamic scholarship in Cairo, he was associated with the local branches of the Muslim Brotherhood. In the 1960s, Yassin preached religious sermons in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Subsequently, in December 1987, Yassin established Hamas as the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. This came in the backdrop of the first intifada – Palestinian attacks against Israel for alleged atrocities in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Initially, Hamas believed that Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was a threat to the Muslim Brotherhood so it did everything to ‘counter’ it. In 1988, Hamas published its charter which called for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic society in historic Palestine.
Since April 1993, Hamas has been carrying out suicide bombings. The first reported bombing was done five months before PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords. The historic accord led to the establishment of limited self-government for parts of the West Bank and Gaza. A new entity called the Palestinian Authority (PA) was created for this purpose. However, Hamas condemned and tried to derail these developments towards peace. It also condemned the PLO’s and Israel’s recognition of each other.
Later, in 1997, the United States designated Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization, as it went on to spearhead violent resistance during the second intifada, in the early 2000s. Hamas’s founder, Yassin was killed by Israeli forces in 2004. Apart from the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas is the other major outfit in Palestinian territories. Since 2006, the Islamist outfit Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip. Back then, it defeated its rival political party, Fatah, in elections, but there hasn’t been any election in the Palestinian enclave.
Previously, Syria used to host Hamas leadership, but it had a fallout with Syrian authorities after the Palestinian refugees participated in the 2011 uprising that preceded the Syrian Civil War. Meanwhile, some of the Hamas leadership has an office in Turkey and they reportedly operate from there. Notably, the group behind the horrific attack on Israel on 7th October is not only responsible for terrorism in the Jewish country or the Middle East but also has penetrated its venomous claws in India as well.
Hamas and SIMI’s shared goal of an Islamic state in India
The Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) which had close ties with Pakistan-based terror outfits and Indian Mujahideen (IM) was banned by the government of India on 27th September 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks. The group faced serious charges, including sedition, creating hatred, and engineering communal violence, among others. It was earlier reported how Hamas and SIMI shared the goal of an Islamic state in India and also furthered funding to promote anti-India activities.
SIMI believed that ideas of secularism, democracy, and nationalism are anti-Islamic, and it frequently emphasized the need for an armed struggle to establish Islam’s supremacy, the restoration of the Khalifat (the Islamic state or caliphate), and ummah (Muslim brotherhood) in India. The organization believed that, despite being a minority in the country, Muslims should work hard to ensure that Shari’ah is implemented, as failure to do so will result in their demise in Hell. Hence, the creation of an Islamic polity in the state of India is considered to be the primary goal of Indian Muslims, per SIMI. The goals of SIMI, which resembled what Hamas sought to do to Jews in Israel, underscored the commonality between the two groups.
SIMI, which had a pan-India presence with bases in states including Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir, not only had close links with JeI, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and Pakistan-based jihadi groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) but also Hamas. The latter also funded the former, which was unveiled and confirmed by one of the SIMI terrorists who was arrested by the Indian state. Salim Sajid, an ex-financial secretary of SIMI unveiled that one of the organization’s main funding sources was Hamas.
He also informed that SIMI received financial support from both Bangladesh’s Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) a student wing of JeI Bangladesh, and Saudi Arabia’s Jamayyatul Ansar (JA) which is mainly made up of Indian Muslims who work in the country and believed to be transferring money to SIMI. The other sources of funding to SIMI, as per Sajid, were the Consultative Committee of Indian Muslims in the United States, the International Islamic Federation of Students Organizations headquartered in Kuwait, and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth in Riyadh.
Hamas looking for potential recruits?
Extremist and terror groups frequently establish front organizations to hide their identities, and members of these groups often join groups that share similar beliefs, be it LeT which tries to masquerade as a “charity outfit” named Jama’at-ud-Da’wah or Jaish-e-Mohammed which is hiding behind People’s Anti-Fascist Front to carry out its violent operations in Jammu and Kashmir. More importantly, the relationship between Hamas and SIMI, or any other terror group, may seem odd to some because of multiple differences including linguistic, geographic, or even political but the important thing to remember is that these groups are all motivated by the same ideology which is hatred of Kufar or Kafir (infidels) and the establishment of an Islamic state.
On the other hand, Hamas has been firing a spree of rockets and mortars into Israel after it took over Gaza. Hamas has been dropping hundreds of balloons laden with inflammatory substances and explosives, along with rockets, on Israeli territories,s causing indiscriminate death and destruction to civilians. Additionally, Israel has responded fiercely and unsparingly against the continued provocation, with persistent airstrikes and tank fires on locations described by it as Gaza’s military infrastructure installations. Following this, Hamas, which has lost most of its terrorists to Israel’s counter-attack operations, might be looking to expand its infrastructure, joining hands with terrorist minds and furthering anti-India ideology.
Reports suggest that intelligence agencies had earlier warned of Hamas’s potential engagement with radical elements in South Asia. Therefore, Hamas’s old friendship with Pakistan and jihadi organizations furthering anti-India ideology cannot be ignored hereinafter. The Pakistani army has been providing training to Hamas terrorists. Several terrorists of Hamas’s Air and Naval Wing are trained by SSG commandos of Pakistan. The country also provides huge funding to Hamas. And now, it is openly hosting events promoting terrorism under the guise of ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ where terrorists who have previously launched deadly terrorist attacks on India are joining hands with Hamas.
At the event, notably, the terrorist groups talked against the leadership in India. They also made indefinite comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Addressing the event, one of the JeM terrorists said that the ‘Mujahideen of Palestine’ and ‘Mujahideen of Kashmir’ have now united. He also indicated war against India as he threatened to shed blood in Delhi and to separate Kashmir from India.
