Zakir severs ties with Hizbul Mujahideen

“From today on, I have no association with any outfit. I am of my own. I don’t represent Hizbul Mujahideen,” Zakir said in the latest six-and-a-half minute audio shared on social media on Saturday.

In the audio clip, Zakir reiterates his position that the Kashmir struggle is for the establishment of Shariah, not a secular state and he stands by his earlier statement.

However, he said, he didn’t name any individual in his last statement.

“I have only said that I will hang those who want to establish a secular state. Because after we get freedom from India, we may have to fight with those who support a secular state,” Zakir said, adding that people may seem it too early, but it was necessary.

Musa had earlier warned Hurriyat leaders that their heads will be chopped off here for interfering in the militant group's "struggle for Islam".

In an audio message released on Friday from unknown location,  Musa was quoted as saying "I am warning all those Hurriyat leaders we will cut their heads and hang them in Lal Chowk if they interfere in our Islamic struggle.”

Zakir asserted that his outfit was clear in its motives of "fighting to impose a Shariat in Kashmir and not resolving the Kashmir issue by calling it a political struggle".

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)