Amanullah Khan (JKLF)

By 1962, Amanullah Khan became an advocate of reunification of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and complete independence from both India and Pakistan. He started a monthly magazine called "Voice of Kashmir" reflecting his ideology.[6] Jointly with G. M. Lone, a member of the Azad Kashmir State Council, he established Kashmir Independence Committee, which lobbied the Azad Kashmir government to take a more active role in the Indian-controlled Kashmir.[7] In 1964, Khan was elected as the Secretary General of the Azad Kashmir Plebiscite Front, inspired by the Jammu Kashmir Plebiscite Front started by Mirza Afzal Beg in the Indian-controlled Kashmir. Subsequently, in April 1965, the Kashmir Independence Committee was merged into the Azad Kashmir Plebiscite Front.[7][8]

The JK National Liberation Front (NLF) was an offshoot of the Plebiscite Front, established by Khan and Maqbool Bhat around August 1965 for carrying out armed insurgency in the Indian-controlled Kashmir. Armed operations were started in November 1965, shortly after the failed Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Maqbool Bhat and Mir Ahmad entered the Kashmir Valley attempting to recruit members. They were compromised and ended up killing a police official. Captured and sentenced to death, Bhat nevertheless escaped from prison and made it back to Azad Kashmir. But he was accused of being an Indian spy by Pakistan and imprisoned in Pakistan.[8] Amanullah Khan was also imprisoned for 15 months in a Gilgit prison during 1970-72, accused of being an Indian agent. He was released after protests broke out in Gilgit. Thirteen of his colleagues were sentenced to 14 years in prison, but released after a year.[3] Khan was also tried in absentia in Srinagar, where he was accused of being an agent of Pakistan.[7][9]

Further attempts by the NLF to infiltrate into Indian-controlled Kashmir also met with failure. Praveen Swami states that the organisation did not have enough funds and infrastructure, or support from other sources, to make an impact inside India.[10] Paul Staniland adds that "State repression" in the Indian-controlled Kashmir also played a key role.[11]

In the mid 1970s, with the organisation having fallen apart and the key leaders in jail, Amanullah Khan left Pakistan for the United Kingdom (UK). The British Mirpuris, many of whom had been displaced by the construction of the Mangla Dam, extended enthusiastic support. The UK chapter of the Plebiscite Front was converted into the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in May 1977 and formed an armed wing called the `National Liberation Army'. Amanullah Khan took charge as the General Secretary of JKLF the following February. JKLF opened branches in various countries in Europe and the Middle East as well as the US, and held well-attended conventions in Birmingham in 1981 and Luton in 1982.[12]

Praveen Swami states that the JKLF made plans to bomb the March 1983 conference of non-aligned meeting in New Delhi and to hijack an airliner from New Delhi, both of which were aborted. After the arrival of Hashim Qureshi in the UK in January 1984, another hijacking was planned. However, on 3 February 1984, members of the National Liberation Army kidnapped the Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in Birmingham and demanded the release of Maqbool Bhat as ransom. Amanullah Khan was named as the interlocuter. Unfortunately, the kidnappers panicked at the possibility of a police raid and, allegedly upon Amanullah Khan's instructions, shot the diplomat. India executed Maqbool Bhat six days later. A British court convicted two members of the JKLF for the killing of Mhatre. Hashim Quresi and Amanullah Khan were expelled from the UK.[13]

Amanullah Khan returned to Pakistan in 1984,[14] establishing the JKLF headquarters at Muzaffarabad.[15] Pakistan under Zia ul-Haq, which was already supporting Khalistani militants in Punjab, was ready to support insurgency in Kashmir, and Khan was ready to work with the Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Following the rigged State election in Jammu and Kashmir in 1987, the disaffected youth of the Kashmir Valley started crossing the Line of Control to Azad Kashmir to obtain arms and training. Khan's JKLF was their natural destination. Staniland states that the JKLF was "reborn" in the Indian-controlled Kashmir in this period. It was led by young activists from Srinagar and its environs, the so-called `HAJY' group. The enormity of popular support received for their call for independence surprised them. Within two years, the JKLF in the Valley emerged as the "vanguard and spearhead of a popular uprising" against the Indian state.[16][17]

However, a pro-independence JKLF was not in Pakistan's interest. Pakistan accepted the collaboration with JKLF only as a "necessary compromise," because of the recognition that Islamist groups had very little currency in the Kashmir Valley. However, cadres of Islamist groups were also trained in JKLF training camps in Azad Kashmir. This quickly led to a dilution of the JKLF's nationalist ideology.[18] Independence and Islam became interchangeable slogans. The attacks on Kashmiri Pandits, liquor shops and beauty parlours were never condemned by the JKLF. According to Hasim Qureshi such outrages were "official Pakistan policy" and the policy was endorsed by the Islamic Right as well as Amanullah Khan's JKLF. "The ISI ran this movement on communal lines right from the beginning," says Qureshi, "and for that Amanullah and his underlings became its agents."[19]

By 1992, the majority of the JKLF militants were killed or captured and they were yielding ground to pro-Pakistan guerilla groups such as the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, strongly promoted by the Pakistani military authorities. Further encroachment by pan-Islamist fighters infiltrating into the Valley from Pakistan changed the colour of the insurgency. Pakistan ceased its financial support to the JKLF because of its pro-independence ideology.[20][21]

Yasin Malik, the JKLF leader in the Valley, renounced violence in 1994 and declared an "indefinite ceasefire."[22] Malik's peaceful struggle was unacceptable to Amanullah Khan, who removed him as the president of JKLF. In return, Malik expelled Khan from the chairmanship. Thus JKLF had split into two factions. The Pakistan government recognised Yasin Malik as the leader of JKLF, which further complicated the situation.[23]

Ellis and Khan state that, during the Azad Kashmir elections in 1996, JKLF commanded more support than all the traditional parties, even though it was not allowed to contest elections due to its pro-Independence stance.[24]

The two branches of JKLF reunited in 2011. Although Khan supported armed resistance, he never picked up arms himself.[6]