We want Taliban-type Govt in Pak: Convicted Harkat man
The Hindustan Times 12-25-2000 Prabhu Razdan

A HARDCORE militant of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), Abdul Mateen, who is lodged in Jaipur Central Jail, said his organisation wants a Taliban-type Government in Pakistan.

He disclosed this in an interview to The Hindustan Times. Abdul Mateen, 25, a resident of Kolachi Colony, district Ghotki in Sindh Province of Pakistan, has been convicted for his involvement in the explosion at Swai Man Singh (SMS) Stadium here on January 26, 1996.

Mateen said his outfit does not believe in democracy in Pakistan. "Though the military rule of General Pervez Musharraf is comparatively better for Pakistan, but we, as an armed force, are for a Taliban-type Government in Pakistan. Notwithstanding the reality that Taliban rulers did not deliver as expected of them, HUM will not rest till it achieves the goal of giving Pakistanis a Taliban-type Government," he said.

"I am the first person who introduced the concept of suicide attacks in Kashmir in 1995. I carried the first fidayeen attack on the BSF jawans at Srigufwara in Anantnag district, killing four on the spot. In a retaliatory action, I was also injured," he added.

Commenting on the recent statement of senior APHC leader Abdul Gani Lone that foreign militants should leave Kashmir as their job was over, Mateen said: "These politicians are not our leaders. They play their role and we ours. We are supposed to follow directives of HUM high command in Pakistan not theirs."

Mateen said he met Maulana Masood Azhar in a training camp at Khost in Afghanistan in 1993, where about 1,200 militants were getting arms training. Maulana Masood Azhar, was one among the three militants released in exchange for the passengers of IC-814 flight, which was hijacked on its way to New Delhi from Kathmandu last year.

The HUM militant said that after getting arms training in Afghanistan, he along with 37 other heavily-armed Harkt-ul-Ansar (later converted into Harkat-ul-Mujahideen) militants sneaked into India from Bandipora area in September 1994. In 1996, one Sikendar of Anantnag assigned him to carry out blasts anywhere outside J&K on the Republic Day. "I succeeded in planting a time bomb in the SMS Stadium, Jaipur, which exploded half an hour before the function," he said.