LAHORE – The chief of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) – Nasrullah Mansoor Langrial – tied knot on Sunday at Jalalpur Jattan, District Gujrat. The 47-year old-guerilla commander was released on February 8 from an Indian jail after 18 years of imprisonment.
He was arrested in 1993 following a tip-off by the Indian Army in the Held Kashmir. He spent time in different prisons including Tihar Jail, Delhi. He was also kept at Balwal Jail in Jammu. While in jail along with Maulana Masood Azhar and Sajjad Afghani (guerrilla commander of Jaish-e-Muhammad killed in Kashmir three weeks ago), Commander Mansoor tried to escape with the help of his companions by digging a tunnel.
But the effort ended in a failure and brought brutal torture on his accomplice. During the ‘jihad’ in Afghanistan, Commander Mansoor was very close to Maulana Abdul-ur-Rashid Ghazi of Lal Mosque, the cleric who was later killed in the army operation at Islamabad in 2007. Commander Mansoor is popularly known as ‘Darwesh’ in the Jihadi circles.
It is important to note that Ilyas Kashmir, on whom the US has placed $5 million bounty, was also the commander of HJI but his policies and close rapport with al Qaeda caused rift in the HuJI, resulting in his going different line of action. Ilyas is now famous as the commander of 313 Brigade.
Sources claim that the marriage ceremony of commander Nasrullah served as a reunion for the jihadis related to struggle in Kashmir where they all felicitated the commander on his freedom from Indian captivity.
