Fazlur Rehman Khalil
Fazlur Rehman Khalil is a founder of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and current leader of Ansar-ul-Umma, which is accused of being a front organization of the banned HuM.
Born into a Pashtun family, Khalil was a student in the Jamia Naumania, a madrassa in Dera Ismail Khan, when he left to join the Afghan Jihad in 1981, at the age of 16, without telling his parents, while in Afghanistan he'd fight in the ranks of commanders Jalaluddin Haqqani and Yunus Khalis as well meeting Osama bin Laden, who would become a long-time friend.
Khalil cofounded Harakat-ul-Jihad-ul-Islami in 1980 with Irshad Ahmad and Qari Saifullah Akhtar, all three had graduated from Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia Banuri Town in Karachi. He would later go on to found and lead Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen. Khalil was a signatory of Osama bin Laden's 1998 fatwa called the International Front Against Jews and Crusaders.
He stepped down as emir of HuM in February 2000 and his second-in-command, Farooq Kashmiri, assumed leadership of the group.
In May 2004, Pakistani authorities arrested Khalil. After six months he was released due to lack of evidence. After Hamid and Umer Hayat reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June 2005 that they had received training at an Al Qaeda camp run by Khalil, he went into hiding.
In March 2006, eight assailants dragged Khalil and his driver from a mosque in Tarnol, about three miles northwest of Islamabad. He was held for five hours, beaten and left in front of a mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad.
At the behest of the Musharraf government in 2007, Khalil was among a group of clerics who attempted to negotiate an end to the Red Mosque standoff.
He is considered to be close to the Talibans and Prime Minister Imran Khan.
