Khalil, in mid-February 2000 stepped down as HUM emir, turning the reins over to the popular Kashmiri commander and his second-in-command, Farooq Kashmiri. Khalil assumed the position of HUM Secretary General. HUM is thought to have several thousand armed supporters located in Pakistani Kashmir, and India's southern Kashmir and Doda regions. It uses light and heavy machine guns, assault rifles, mortars, explosives, and rockets. HUM lost some of its membership due to defections to the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The group is based in Muzaffarabad, Rawalpindi, and several other towns in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but members conduct insurgent and terrorist activities primarily in Kashmir. The group's current leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, lives openly in the Islamabad suburb of Golra Sharif. He has denied having any contact with Osama bin Laden. According to The New York Times, Osama Bin Laden's seized cellphones attest Harkat-ul-Mujahideen's continued contact with Osama Bin Laden and its bases and fighters shared with the Taliban over the years following the war in Afghanistan. Designation as terrorist organization The countries and organizations below have officially listed the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) as a terrorist organization. Harkat ul-Ansar Harkat ul-Ansar (HuA) was an Islamic terrorist organization founded by Abdelkader Mokhtari in 1993. It was the result of a merger between Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI). Many of its operations were conducted in Jammu and Kashmir. Soon after its founding, several members of its leadership were arrested by Indian Security Forces. In November 1993, the former head of HuM, Nasrullah Mansur Langrayal, was arrested. In February 1994, the HuA general secretary, Maulana Masood Azhar and chief commander, Sajjad Afghani, were captured in the Chattargul area of Anantnag district. It was labeled a terrorist organization in 1997 by the United States because of its connections with Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden. The ban severely limited the funding of the group, and as a result HuA was reorganized as a reincarnated Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. At the time, Azhar split from the group to form Jaish-e-Mohammed. In 1998, U.S.'s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its report stated, "HuA, an Islamic terrorist organisation that Pakistan supports in its proxy war against Indian forces in Kashmir, increasingly is using terrorist tactics against Westerners and random attacks on civilians that could involve Westerners to promote its pan-Islamic agenda." CIA also stated that Hua had abducted at least 13 persons, of which 12 were from western countries in the period from early 1994 to 1998.