The religious movement could be joined by anyone including the wealthy and several powerful tribal leaders had done so from the Kurdish region of Iraq.

During the Iraq occupation, the British were opposed to the Haqqa movement due to its growing power, its nonconformity, and the refusal of its followers to pay taxes.

The Kurdish revolution started on 11 September 1961 and Ali Askari was asked to command the liberation of Zaxo, Duhok and the rest of the Bahdinan region.

[6] Following the 1975 Algiers Agreement between Iran and Iraq, all support of the Kurdish revolution halted and the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, decided to give up supply to the Kurds in Iraq based on the Algiers accord agreed with then Iraqi Vice-President, Saddam Hussein.

In 1975, Ali Askari asked Mustafa Barzani to continue the fighting against the Iraqi regime and stand up for the rights of the Kurds, however Mustafa Barzani disagreed stating that no one should continue the revolution, leaving many of the Kurdish leadership divided over the future of the Kurdish liberation movement in Iraq.

Ali Askari, Omar Dababa, Rasul Mamand, and Khalid Sa'id decided to form the Kurdistan Socialist Movement (KSM).

All three points were rejected by Saddam Hussein, which led to the resumption of the PUK's operations upon Ali Askari's return to Kurdistan.

[citation needed] After the fall of the First Kurdish–Iraqi War and the 'Aylul' revolution led by Mustafa Barzani, there were many disagreements between the Kurdish leadership over continuing the fight against the Baath regime.

Meanwhile, Jalal Talabani formed PUK from his exile in Syria, in protest against perceived "inability of the feudalist, tribalist, bourgeois, rightist and capitulationist Kurdish [KDP] leadership".

KDP leadership under Sami Abd al-Rahman and Idris Barzani, still recuperating from the massive sudden down-turn and in no mood to deal softly with internal enemies, were aware of these general instructions from Talabani and preemptively ambushed and killed dozens of PUK fighters on 3 occasions while PUK were also accused of killing numerous high-ranking Barzanis.

[12] By the time they arrived in Baradust with low ammunition, Askari made routine contact with KDP and predicted no hostilities.

The killing of Ali Askari was already damaging for internal Kurdish affairs however the manner of his execution, by an RPG-7, made the matter even harder to over-come, which was ordered by Mustafa Barzani himself.