Sayeed Salahudeen

Mohammad Yusuf Shah (born 18 February or December 1946), commonly known as Syed Salahuddin, is the head of Hizbul Mujahideen, a militant organization operating in Kashmir. He also heads the United Jihad Council, a Pakistan-based conglomeration of jihadist militant groups sponsored by the ISI, with the goal of merging Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan.

Salahuddin vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, threatened to train more Kashmiri suicide bombers, and vowed to turn the Kashmir valley "into a graveyard for Indian forces." He is listed on the Most Wanted List of India's National Investigation Agency. He is named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department Of State. Salahuddin dismissed the listing as "a joint move by the US, Israel, and India to express their animosity towards Pakistan." Pakistan also dismissed sanction against him.

In August 2020 India's Enforcement Directorate filed a charge-sheet. A court in New Delhi issued a summons in 2021 in relation to a terror funding case. In 2022, India's NIA court ordered charges to be framed against him and others.

Early life and education Syed Mohammad Yusuf Shah was born in December 1946 in Soibugh, Budgam, a village in the Kashmir Valley. His maternal grandfather Gulla Saheb was a well-known spiritual figure. His father was a farmer.

Yusuf Shah studied under his maternal grandfather's guidance, who took an interest in his education. In high school, Shah composed poetry in English and regularly participated in debate competitions. He finished Intermediate in science with first-class marks.

Political career

Jamaat-e-Islami A year after his graduation, Yusuf Shah was appointed as the tehsil chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir for Budgam. Later he became the chief Nizam-e-Aala for the Jamaat-e-Islami's student wing, Tehreek-e-Talaba. In 1986, he was appointed the district chief of Jamaat for the Srinagar district. His Friday sermons at the Exhibition Grounds in Srinagar were popular with the youth. His sermons were contemporary and "had the power to articular what was in our minds", according to Showkat Ahmad Bakhshi of the Islamic Students League.

Muslim United Front In 1987, Yusuf Shah contested the J&K assembly election as a candidate of the Muslim United Front, in Srinagar's Amira Kadal constituency. Yusuf Shah as well as Yasin Malik, along with other supporters, were arrested and put in jail without trial.

Militancy career

Hizbul Mujahideen After his arrest for violent protests and release in 1989, he then joined Hizbul Mujahideen founded by Muhammad Ahsan Dar alias "Master" who later parted from Hizbul Mujahideen. He soon took over as the chief of Hizbul Mujahideen and then adopted nom de guerre "Syed Salahuddin", named after Saladin, the 12th century Sunni Muslim political and military leader, who fought in The Third Crusade.

Pakistan rejected the US sanctions against him.

Personal life

Family Shah is married, with five sons and two daughters. Writing in 2017, Indian journalist Barkha Dutt, who met him in Rawalpindi, stated that none of Syed Salahuddin's children had been involved in militancy, and that four of them had held government jobs.

Two sons were removed from government offices in Jammu and Kashmir in 2021. In the next month one of his sons, Syed Shakeel Yousuf was arrested, in a terror funding case. Shahid, another son, had been arrested before.