Hilal Kohistani

Hilal Kohistani is the main antagonist of the 2000 Bollywood film, Mission Kashmir. He is a Pathan leader of a terrorist group bent on destroying India by escalating the conflicts around Kashmir.

He was played by Indian actor, Jackie Shroff.

Role
During his early days, Hilal stated that he was captured by Russians who silted his neck, and that he couldn't hold up his head for a week.

He first appeared in the movie, when he was introduced to a businessman, who is a mastermind of a terrorist operation called "Mission Kashmir", which involves killing the Indian Prime Minster during his visit to Srinagar, or as it was told. The businessman is willing to give in supplies to Hilal and his men to ensure their cooperation, to which Hilal assures that the operation will go well as long he has his right-hand man, Altaaf Khan (the protagonist of the film). It was revealed earlier that Altaaf was found and raised by Hilal after attempting to kill the local Senior Superitendent of Police Iniyat Khan, since Khan was involved of an operation to wipe out an infamous terrorist, which has caused the lives of Atlaaf's parents and sister right before Atlaaf's eyes. Taking advantage of the scarred boy, Hilal had brainwashed Altaaf into thinking that he and his men act according to made up Islamic principles and trained him to become a terrorist for 10 years.

Hilal uses Altaaf's hatred as a means to achieve his own goals, all the while encouraging Altaaf to target Khan (who is now an Inspector General) for his family's death. He is also above killing one of his own men to use his body to throw the Kashmiri police off the terrorists' tracks, and lying to Altaaf and the others that the man chose to pull the gun on himself.

Hilal assigns Altaaf to complete the first task of Mission Kashmir, which is to blow up the local TV tower of Srinagar on Khan's birthday. Though the task was a complete success, this led the media to brand Atlaaf as a wanted outlaw for his involvement, much to Altaaf's despair. Hilal manages to avert this by having Altaaf safely hidden in one of their secret hideouts. Hilal would later attempt to help Altaaf plan an assassination attempt of Khan by planting a bomb on Khan's briefcase, though this backfired when Khan's wife Neelima fell victim to it, much to the distraught of Khan and Altaaf (who screams in remorseful agony of killing her, since she used to raise him as her son before he ran away).

After Khan and his men manage to infiltrate one of Hilal's men's hideouts, they discover evidence and information about Mission Kashmir. After going through some cassette tapes, Khan and his men soon learn of a horrible truth: it turns out that Mission Kashmir has nothing to do in taking down the Prime Minister. Instead, the true goal for Mission Kashmir was to blow up the local Hindu and Muslim temples with missiles in order to escalate Hindu-Muslim conflict across the subcontinent, thereby dividing Kashmir and turning it into a war zone. It also turns out that the attack on the TV tower was planned by Hilal and his conspirators to spread the rumor of assassinating the Prime Minister to cover up their true goal. It is also revealed that Hilal has kept the true goal of Mission Kashmir as a secret from Altaaf, for he feared that the young man wouldn't approve of it if being told; this was evident of when Altaaf heads over to prepare for the launches, Hilal secretly tells one of his men to keep an eye of Altaaf and orders his death if he doesn't consent over the true targets.

By staging a fire in the jail that allows one of the bomb-briefcase men to escape, Khan and his men manage to track down and capture Hilal, but they are distraught to hear that Altaaf and the other terrorists have left to launch the missiles, something which neither the police nor the army can take action against, as they still don't have any idea or time to find out where the missiles will be launched. Deciding to play wise on this, Khan offers to make a deal with Hilal: going under the false pretense of allowing Hilal and his men to continue forward with Mission Kashmir in exchange for Altaaf, whom Khan swore to kill. He secretly lies to Hilal that he is more occupied with revenge for Neelima's death rather than doing his job of serving his country. Seeing that Khan's 'hatred' of Altaaf is worthy of a Pathan's duty, Hilal accepts the deal, and to ensure no other mistake will be made, Khan goes alone with Hilal to the terrorists' hideouts.

As Hilal and Khan reach the swamps, Hilal tells Altaaf of Khan's whereabouts. At that point, an enraged Altaaf starts attacking a weary Khan to exact revenge for his family's murder. While doing so, Khan reveals to him the true goals of Mission Kashmir, stating that Kashmir will be turned into a hell. Hilal angrily orders Altaaf to shoot Khan in the head. Khan, expressing his dear love for Altaaf and remorse for killing his family, is willing to accept his fate, but begs Altaaf to stop Hilal and his plans. As Altaaf struggles to do it, he remembers that he once knew about the shrines Neelima took him to and the comment Neelima said about choosing sides during her visit earlier. Unwilling to betray his mother, Atlaaf decides to abandon his plan of revenge and shoots Hilal.

Just as Khan orders the other terrorists to step away from the launchers, Altaaf aims the gun at Hilal, berating him for all the lies, hypocrisy, and treachery he has done in the name of their religion, and is now prepared to put him out of his misery. Just as Altaaf shoots Hilal to his death, Hilal sets off a bomb to distract Altaaf before he dies, allowing Hilal's remaining men to regain hold of the launchers and prepare to blow up the holy shrines. As Khan guns down several terrorists, Altaaf redeems himself by grabbing a spare launcher and using it to destroy the other launchers and kill the remaining terrorists to save the shrines. However, it was at the cost of getting shot in the torso in the process, causing Altaaf to fall into the swamp. Khan manages to rescue Altaaf from drowning, and they both evade from the explosions of the hideouts.

As Khan and Altaaf reconcile with each other for their past mistakes, the plans of Mission Kashmir are revealed to the public by the media following the deaths of Hilal and his men, and the terrorist sponsor's hideout is found by Kashmiri police, who shoot the sponsor offscreen as he tries to get away after killing two of his associates. As such, the terrorists' plans for chaos against Kashmir have finally died in vain.