Will Hurriyat revive Red Crescent of 1990s?

Hilal-e-Ahmar raised Rs 8.2 Cr in 10 months and vanished

Hakeem Irfan/Mehboob Jeelani

Jan 03: Kashmir’s foremost social charity Anjuman-e-Hilal-e-Ahmar (AHA) raised Rs 8.2 Crore in ten months of 1989 to combat the consequences of recurrent curfews and to rehabilitate the victims of violence.

Nearly two decades on, the fund raising potential of Anjuman-e-Hilal-e-Ahmar (Red Crescent Society) has dwindled to a paltry Rs 20000 a month and the ambitious projects of setting up hospitals, schools etc are long dead.

Revisiting these details is troubling the separatist leadership that wants to reestablish its lost rapport with the masses.

Why did AHA experiment fail? The charity is said to have been consumed in the bickering between the trustees however some separatist activists allege government of India conspired to sabotage the AHA agenda, which sought to sustain the freedom struggle in J&K.

“It was a big dream. Had this model been implemented sincerely, presently Kashmiri people would have been economically independent,” said Ghulam Muhammad Dar, father of the frontline JKLF leader, Aijaz Ahmed Dar who was among the first martyrs of Kashmir.

Dar claims to be the first Chairman of AHA and alleges that due to the ‘internal bickering’ the organization weakened and ultimately failed to purse its agenda.

“On the occasion of Eid ul Azha in 1990,” Dar recollects, “AHA collected 120 thousand animal hides and nobody knows about the details like what happened to them and who got the money,” says Dar.

The idea of floating a socio-economic forum in the name of AHA was actually conceived by Ishfaq Majeed Wani of Srinagar. After joining JKLF, Ishfaq fell to bullets of Indian armed forces in early 1990s. “He was a bright boy with revolutionary ideas regarding the sustenance of the freedom movement. But soon after he was martyred and I was arrested. Whole idea of AHA was hijacked for personal gains,” Dar adds.However he refused to name any individual or group that ‘hijacked’ AHA. “I was in jail. When I was released after two years of detention in 1992, I found AHA almost defunct.”

Besides Dar Abdul Majeed Wani, father of Ishfaq Majeed, Abdul Kabir Sheikh, father of slain JKLF commander Abdul Hameed Sheikh, Farooq Ahmed Shah, father of slain Sajad Shah, Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad father of Shakeel Bakshi who is presently heading Islamic Students League were the trustees of AHA.“It was completely based on local support.

From October 1989 to August 1990 Rs 8.2 Crores were raised,” said Abdul Majeed Wani who also claims to be one of the Chairmen of AHA.Wani admits that people from all corners of valley donated liberally for the ‘cause’. “I still remember how Khadeeja, a poor lady from Halmetpora Kupwara, donated a box of homemade pickle because she had no other commodity worth donating,” Wani recalls.

Wani says the organization was pursuing the agenda of relief distribution but had conceived a micro-project of establishing small-scale industries and other social institutions across J&K.“This was a big project. Our aim was to establish large and small scale industries, educational institutions, factories, and other services that could have made Kashmir economically independent.”Ishfaq’s father, Majid Wani says such was the success of AHA that Jama’at-e-Islami floated a parallel Markaz-e-Hilalal-e-Ahmar (Center of Red Crescent) to pursue the agenda of socio-economic development on the sidelines of an armed movement in the state.

According the office bearers of AHA, the charity had earmarked a relief package of Rs 10, 000 for the family of each militant killed by Army, Police and other Indian forces.“One of the major relief packages was given to the fire victims of Magam and Watmagam in 1991 when Indian army set ablaze many houses,” Wani informs.Apart from relief packages for the dead, the organization used to pay monthly cash assistance of Rs 1000 to the families of those in jails.Is AHA dead?Wani says the charity is still running but it is almost defunct and its fundraising capacity has reduced drastically.

“Presently the monthly income of AHA is Rs 20000 and each penny gets distributed among those who deserve to get relief,” he claims.Significantly, the AHA was the only charity group from Kashmir that enjoyed recognition by Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a social wing of Raabita-e-Alam-e-Islam.Longtime freedom activist and Chairman of Islamic Students League, Shakeel Bakhshi believes the government of India sabotaged the AHA.“Aggressor never wants such kind of initiatives to get implemented on ground. Government of India arrested all the founders of AHA and sabotaged this idea which was growing to become a big institution,” Bakhshi asserts.There are voices within separatist circles that Jama’at-e-Islami and JKLF should forge an external alliance and revive AHA. “Jama’at and JKLF may have different ideology regarding the political future of J&K but they have compatibility when it comes to sustain the struggle and win back the support of the masses,” said a middle-rung separatist leader wishing not to be quoted by name.


Separatists have borrowed the title from Arabic chapter of Red Cross. Hilal e Ahmar (Arabic: هلال احمر‎) is the Red Crescent society. It is the equivalent of Saleeb e Ahmar (Arabic: صلیب احمر‎) or Red Cross society. Hilal e Ahmar was formed as Kızılay Derneği in the Ottoman Empire