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Afghanistan

Former Pakistani Taliban No 2 arrested in Afghanistan: reports

2013-02-19

[Dawn] Afghan intelligence officials on Monday claimed to have enjugged Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! the former second-in-command of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP), Maulvi Faqir, along with "four accomplices" while he was trying to enter Pakistain's Tirah Valley from Afghanistan's Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province. "Maulvi Faqir and his four accomplices who had entered Nangarhar from Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central ...Smallest of the agencies in FATA. The Agency administration is located in Khar. Bajaur is inhabited almost exclusively by Tarkani Pashtuns, which are divided into multiple bickering subtribes. Its 52 km border border with Afghanistan's Kunar Province makes it of strategic importance to Pakistain's strategic depth... were apprehended near Basawal on Torkham Road near the border of Khyber Agency's Tirah Valley," an Afghan intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. "Yes I can confirm their names as they had told us. Maulvi Faqir, Shahid Umar, Maulana Hakeemullah Bajauri, Mualana Turabi and Fateh are the people who have been arrested," he replied when asked about the identity of the arrested people. "They were traveling in a vehicle when (we) intercepted near Basawal village of Nangarhar," he added. The Afghan intelligence official, who identified himself with the name Abdullah, said: "Arms and ammunition have also been seized from their vehicle. The five are in the custody of Afghan intelligence officials who are interrogating them." Maulvi Faqir was the deputy amir (second-in-command) of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and the Taliban chief in Bajaur Agency, but was later removed from his position in March 2012 on suspicions of entering into a peace deal with the Pak government. Faqir Muhammad, who hails from Chopatra Village of Bajaur Agency, was first part of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi, and later the deputy chief of TTP until March 2012 when he announced himself as the TTP chief after the death of Baitullah Mehsud. Faqir had also publicly accepted his ties with al-Qaeda network and had been accused of a number of cross-border attacks in Bajaur Agency and the settled Lower and Upper Dir district.

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India-Pakistan

Three more religious groups banned

2012-03-12

[Dawn] The government banned on Saturday another three religious/charity organizations working in the country. According to a bigwig of the interior ministry, with the latest ban imposed on Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), Al Harmain Foundation (AHF) and Rabita Trust (RT), I believe al-Harumain and Rabita Trust were banned under Perv in 2002 or thereabouts and removed after their protestations of innocence around 2006. The dates are just off the top of my head, so could be wrong. the number of outlawed organizations and groups has risen to 38. The three organizations were outlawed by the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... in 2009 under a resolution adopted by the Security Council. ... and three years later Pakistain gets around to putting them on the list of banned organizations, a process that still has nothing to do with putting them out of business... The ASWJ, known previously as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain ...a Sunni Deobandi organization, a formerly registered Pak political party, established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Its stated goal is to oppose Shia influence in Pakistain. They're not too big on Brelvis, either. Or Christians. Or anybody else who's not them. The organization was banned in 2002 as a terrorist organization, but somehow it keeps ticking along, piling up the corpse counts... (SSP), is taking part in activities of a recently-formed group of religious organizations, Difa-e-Pakistain Council. ...and no suggestion of "banning" the Difa-e-Pakistain Council... The council recently attracted large crowds at some of its public meetings in different cities where it lambasted both Islamabad and Washington. The council may strongly react to the government's decision to ban one of its important members. ... probably by blowing something up or killing somebody or both... The AHF is a Soddy Arabia-based organization and also working in Pakistain. The official said the interior ministry had sent letters to the four provincial home secretaries, informing them about the ban on the three organizations. According to the BBC, ASWJ chief Maulana Ahmed Ludhyanvi expressed ignorance about any such ban. "No, no! Certainly not!" However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... he said if it was true he would opt for a legal fight. "We are a peaceful organization," he was quoted as saying. "If anyone places a ban on us...they are trying to place a ban on Pakistain." A document, which the BBC describes as a notification issued by the interior ministry that was not publicly announced, claimed that the ASWJ was suspected to be involved in acts of terrorism in the country and, therefore, it was being added to the first schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. The organizations previously banned by the government are: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistain (banned on Aug 14, 2001), Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI... , Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain, Tehrik-e-Jaafria Pakistain, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi, Tehrik-e-Islami (on Jan 14, 2002), Al Qaeda (on March 17, 2003), Millat-e-Islamia Pakistain, Khuddam-ul-Islam, Islami Tehrik Pakistain (on Nov 15, 2003), Jamaat-ul-Ansar, Jamaat-ul-Furqan, Hizbut Tehrir (on Nov 20, 2003), Khair-un-Naas International Trust (on Oct 27, 2004), Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Liberation Army (on April 7, 2006), Islamic Students Movement of Pakistain (on Aug 21, 2006), Lashkar-e-Islam, Ansar-ul-Islam, Haji Namdar Group (on June 30, 2008), Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (on Aug 25, 2008), Jamatud Daawa, Al-Akhtar Trust and Al-Rashid Trust (banned under the UNSC resolution 1267 on Dec 10, 2008), Shia Talba Action Committee, Markaz-e-Sabeel (Gilgit), Tanzeem Naujawan-e-Sunnat (Gilgit), People's Aman Committee, Balochistan Republican Army, Balochistan Liberation Front, Lashkar-e-Balochistan, Balochistan Liberation United Front and Balochistan Musallah Difa Tanzeem (banned in 2011). The fact that there are this many extremist organizations -- merely the ones that urgently need banning, not all of them -- is simply breath-taking. And for some reason the Paks see the problem as some sort of "hidden hand."

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India-Pakistan

TNSM chief's trial delayed for non-availability of evidence

2010-09-14

[Pak Daily Times] The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has delayed the trial of banned Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Mohammad after the prosecution department failed to produce solid evidence and witnesses against him, Daily Times has learnt. Looks like the fix is in again... "non-availability of evidence". Is that like "all the witnesses are dead"? Official sources in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home and Tribal Affairs Department revealed that first the TNSM chief's trial was delayed due to security reasons and Taliban's threat to anti-terrorism judge and it was decided to run his trial in Central Prison Peshawar. But, the sources added, the provincial government was now delaying his trial due to non-availability of witnesses and solid evidence against him. "The government is taking no interest in the trial of TNSM chief and there is a possibility that he once again be released through an agreement," an official told Daily Times on condition of anonymity. Two months ago, the provincial government had delayed the trial of Sufi Mohammad due to security reasons and Taliban's threats to Swat anti-terrorism judge Asim Imam. The provincial home department reviewed its decision to produce Sufi Mohammad and other key terrorists in Swat anti-terrorism court and approved trial of TNSM chief and other key terrorists by a judge of anti-terrorism court in the prison. The anti-terrorism court judge was scheduled to start Sufi's trial in various cases on July 20 in the prison, but the trial could not resume on the scheduled date. Sufi Muhammad is facing charges of sedition, conspiring against the state and encouraging terrorism. There are also a host of other charges against him including Section 302 and 324 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Last year, the ANP-led provincial government had pinned all hopes for peace on Sufi Muhammad and withdrew all cases lodged against him, but he rejected the superior courts of the country declaring them as un-Islamic and denounced democracy and the Constitution. His April 19, 2009 address to a massive gathering at Grassy Ground in Mingora ended all hopes for peaceful resolution of the problems in Swat and rest of Malakand and emboldened the Swat militants. His address brought serious consequences for him. The military launched an operation in his native Maidan area in Lower Dir on April 26, 2009. On June 4, his Amandarra headquarters in Batkhela was raided and his deputy Maulana Muhammad Alam and spokesman Amir Izzat were nabbed. Sufi Muhammad then went into hiding, but in late July 2009, he showed up in Sethi Town of Peshawar and was arrested in the same month.

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India-Pakistan

Government links Sufi's release to new Shariah law in Swat

2008-01-24

I think we can see a pattern here: No matter what the Pak government does against terrorists, win or lose, they're still going to surrender. The government has said it would release Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) Chief Sufi Muhammad after the implementation of its proposed Shar’i Nizam-e-Adl Regulation of 2008 in Malakand division. The proposed regulation is aimed at ending the unrest created by rebel cleric Maulana Fazlullah. Talks between government and the leaders of the banned outfit have accelerated in the last two weeks, officials and TNSM leaders said. TNSM acting chief Muhammad Alam said TNSM leaders wanted their ailing leader released, while the government wanted to implement its proposed Shar’i Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. The proposed new law will repeal the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and high courts in Malakand (including Swat district) to “speed up the justice delivery system in the aftermath of the unrest created by cleric Maulana Fazlullah”. “TNSM will definitely accept the reforms under which Islamic laws are being imposed,” Alam said. A government official, seeking anonymity, told Daily Times that the government would soon announce the promulgation of the proposed regulation to “deal with the Swat crises politically”. The government would announce several important decisions regarding Swat, he said, including the release of the TNSM chief. He said that a committee formed by the government had recommended that “the Supreme Court and high courts Extension of Jurisdiction to Tribal Areas Act, 1973 (Act XVII of 1973) be repealed and the Federal Shariah Court have an exclusive jurisdiction there.”

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India-Pakistan

Petition against TNSM chief's detention

2007-10-31

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday sent notices to the NWFP home secretary and the Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) prison superintendent in a habeas corpus writ petition challenging the detention of former chief of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM), Maulana Sufi Muhammad. A division bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Muhammad Qaim Jan Khan asked both respondents to furnish their comments in the case at the next hearing. The petition was filed by the son of TNSM chief, Fazlullah, through Abdul Latif Afridi. The petitioner, Fazlullah, is not the one who is heading the insurgency in Swat. Maulana Fazlullah, whose followers killed dozens in clashes with troops during the weekend in Swat, is the son-in-law of Sufi Muhammad. The petitioner said his father was arrested in the Kurram Agency in February 2001, along with 28 of his comrades. They were all tried by the Kurram Agency assistant political agent and were convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment against which an appeal was moved before the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) commissioner. The appeal was, however, rejected in 2007. He added that in light of a PHC verdict on May 12, 2004, the FCR Tribunal modified the sentences of all 28 petitioners, which subsequently led to the release of all except Maulana Sufi Muhammad. He said the detained person had never been produced before any court since his arrest, adding, “Obviously, his detention is illegal as no judicial sanction exists to support and justify the detention.” He said the petitioner had learnt that the modified sentences as per the orders of the FCR Tribunal had not been communicated to the prisoners, nor had any arrest warrant from any court ever been served on the inmates. He added that Sufi had not been produced before any court. Advocate Afridi added that Sufi, almost 75 years old, was suffering from hypertension and diabetes and was entitled to remission under the presidential ordinance for elderly prisoners. The outlawed TNSM chief is presently imprisoned in the DI Khan Prison.

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Afghanistan

TNSM Jihadis heading home

2001-11-14

Pakistani jihadis of the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi returned home from Cantor and Jalalabad. Sources said this was a strategic withdrawal. Perhaps they're going home to enlist.

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Afghanistan

150 TNSM are doorknob dead

2001-11-18

More than 150 Pakistanis of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM), who had crossed over to Afghanistan to join with the Taliban in jihad, have been killed while hundreds are still missing. Four Albanians and two Turks were arrested along with 17 Pakistanis when they sneaked into Pakistani tribal territory from Afghanistan overnight. US and Pakistani officials have detained two retired Pakistani naval officials for suspected contacts with Al Qaeda. Four Yemeni women, probably wives of al-Qaeda members, were arrested when they entered Pakistan near the Chaman border in Balochistan province.

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