Syndicated from: Tahir’s Blog

Syndicated from: PAKISTAN DEFENCE BLOG

Syndicated from: Journeys to democracy

• January 2: Chief of ASWJ Aurangzaib Farooqui and three others were booked in December 31, 2011 murder case of Shia leader Askari Raza on Rashid Minhas Road in Karachi, while SSP of the CID’s AEC Chaudhry Aslam also came under interrogation. DIG South Commander Shaukat said that SSP Aslam was automatically suspended since he came under investigation. ASWJ spokesman Taj Hanfi termed the decision as conspiracy against his organisation. The Shia protesters were demanding lodging of an FIR against the killers and taking prompt action against Chaudhry Aslam, who is said to be involved in killing.

• December 29: At least ten people, including journalists, were injured in a clash between two sectarian groups in Khairpur District. Armed men from both sects continued aerial fire, though a heavy bout of tear gassing by the police forced many to leave. The markets in the area have been closed and Khairpur is reportedly deserted, save for the Police and Rangers patrolling the streets. Other reports claimed that there was a virtual curfew-like situation as no one was allowed on the streets. People are afraid of the clash escalating further because the tussle is between two religious groups,” said a citizen, Irfan Phulpoto. He said that the tense areas were Nao Goth, the stronghold of one group and Panj Gula, the stronghold of another sect. Some 600 Policemen and 200 Rangers officers were reportedly deputed to patrol.
According to the report, SSP has a considerable presence in Khairpur District. In 2009, SSP leader Allama Sher Hyderi was killed in the District. SSP leader Malik Ishaq is accused of killing 70 people in over 40 cases.
• December 26: ASWJ strongly condemned Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s December 25, 2011 allegations regarding the SSP involvement in the March 2, 2011 murder of former Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti. ASWJ leaders rejected the allegations levelled at their organisation declaring the statement deceiving and misleading. The organization’s Central Deputy Secretary Allama Masoodur Rehman Usmani and its Islamabad patron Chief Maulana Abdul Razaq Haidri in their joint statement said that the Interior Minister had continuously blamed their party to hide the Federal Government’s failure in solving the murder case.
According to reports, ASWJ had decided to approach the court regarding Malik’s allegations. The organisation claimed that Malik’s allegation, against them, was due to pressure from external forces. They added that this was to create a rift between Muslims and Christians and that the allegations have no credibility. ASWJ demanded that Malik should provide evidence and present it in court or else the party will challenge his allegations in court. They reiterated that their organisation had no links with terrorism, “We never talk about avenging the death of one person by killing a 100.”
• December 25: Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik said that red warrants for assassins of former Minister for Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti had been issued and soon they would be brought to justice. “The two assassins are activists of the banned outfit SSP. They had managed to reach Middle East. However, we are making efforts for their arrest and will bring them back to the country,” he said.
• December 6: Two policemen were injured when SSP militants pelted the Ashura procession in Jhang District.
• November 28: About 100 suspects from two outfits were arrested in an overnight operation, following the November 27, 2011 killings of two Security Force personnel at a Shia camp in Numaish Chowrangi area in Karachi. Rangers and Police cracked down on the SSP – that works under the new name ASWJ, and LeJ activists.
• November 27: Two SF personnel, identified as Zain-ul-Abideen and Azhar Hussain were shot dead and 11 others wounded when some participants of a protest rally organized by SSP opened indiscriminate fire on Shia camps at Numaish Chowrangi area while returning from Karachi Press Club in Karachi. SSP had organized a rally against the November 26, 2011 NATO attack in Mohmand Agency of FATA that killed 25 SFs. Abideen was affiliated with Butarab Scout and Hussain was serving for Pak Hyderi Scout camp. Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Hussain Wasan claimed to have arrested 16 armed assailants near Aalmi Majlis-e-Khatm-e-Nabowat and ordered officials to conduct an independent inquiry into the incident.
• November 14: A cadre of a SSP, identified as Abdul Rehman, was shot dead at his clinic in Babar Market within the limits of Landhi Police Station. Rehman was a resident of Zamanabad Landhi. “He belonged to the Ahl-e-Hadees sect and was said to have been trained in Afghanistan.” Some say that he was affiliated to a banned outfit. However, Inquiry Officer Abdul Latif said that it was unclear if the victim was affiliated to any banned outfit.
• October 30: The Malir town President of SSP, Jabbar Qureshi was shot dead while his companion, Imdadullah, injured in a target killing incident at Korangi Crossing in Karachi.
• October 24: Police recovered two hand grenades, detonators and 75 cartridges from the house of a SSP cadre in Dera Ismail Khan. Cantonment SHO Mohammad Nawaz Gandapur said that they were informed that Imran Ali and Jamshed Mohammad, both cadres of SSP, were hiding in the house of Merajuddin Mehsud in Gulshan Jamil Colony. “We raided the house but didn’t find the activists there. However, we arrested Merajuddin Mehsud for possessing illegal arms and registered a case against him under Anti-Terrorism Act,” he said.
• August 18: An armed clash between the activists of Sunni Tehreek (ST) and SSP claimed two lives, while four others were injured in Godhra within the limits of New Karachi Industrial Area. The clash started between two religious parties before Iftar, when two armed groups opened fire at each other. Resultantly, two persons, one Ghulam Dastagir and another Taufeeq, Mohammad Hussain, died on the spot, while four others Akhter, Shahnaz Bibi, Siraj received bullet injuries. Leader of Jama’at Ulema Pakistan (JUP), Tariq Mehboob claimed that victim Ghulam Dastagir was an activist of his party.
• July 1: SSP and Sunni Tehreek cadres exchanged fire over the control of a hospital located near Muslim Stop in Godhra area of New Karachi locality killing seven cadres and injuring seven others.
• June 30: A clash between two religious groups, Sunni Tehreek and ASWJ, formerly known as SSP, claimed three lives, including one woman, and injured 12 others in Godhra area of New Karachi.
• June 27: One Kashif Wakeel, a cadre of ASWJ, formerly known as SSP, was shot dead at Do Minute Chowrangi in the remits of Bilal Colony Police Station in Karachi.
• June 8: Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, an adviser to the Prime Minister after his visit to a jail in Haripur District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province came up with the observation that jails have become breeding grounds for extremists because outfits like the TTP and the SSP have taken their “ideological campaign” to prisoners.
• April 22: A former cadre of SSP, identified as Mohammed Nadeem, was shot dead in Sharea Faisal near Star Gate.
• March 6: A SSP cadre, Zeeshan, was killed and his friend Mansoor sustained injuries in an incident of target killing in Orangi Town within the limits of Iqbal Market Police Station in Karachi.
• March 5: The SSP ‘leader’ Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Madni, who is also the brother of slain party chief Maulana Azam Tariq, was shot dead along with his son Abu Bakar in an incident of targeted killing in the Khawaja Ajmair Nagri Police Station area of Karachi.
• March 4: A SSP cadre, Syed Muzafar Alam Nomani, was shot dead in Burmy Colony within the limits of Landhi Police Station in Karachi. Sources said that the slain cadre was the custodian of Madrassas Omar bin Abdul Aziz situated at Jumma Goth and was the vice President of the Burmy unit of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) formerly known as SSP.

• December 29: A cadre of SSP, Imran, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Sector 11-G near Nullah Stop in the limits of New Karachi Industrial Area Police station.
• December 27: Five persons, including a minor girl, were killed and three others were injured in sectarian violence in different parts of Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.
• November 28: A local leader of the SSP, Abdur Rehman, was killed while his friend, Mohammed Faisal, injured in the Sharifabad Police Station area of Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.
• November 27: The Government announced a reward of PNR 10 million to anyone providing information about the TTP. “The government will make arrangements to settle the informers and their families anywhere in the country, even abroad, if they fear that the Taliban might hurt them,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. Rehman Malik said that most militants belonged to the LeJ and SSP.
• October 28: A SSP militant, identified as Abdullah, son of Amanullah, was arrested by Police under Chaki Wara Police Station area near Lyari Town in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.
• October 5: A teacher of the Jamia Binoria Al Almia shot dead in Site area. Police said 50-year-old Maulana Mohammad Amin was going to visit his relatives when at least four assailants fired from the front and rear at the jeep he was driving. According to the Police, Maulana Amin was once associated with the SSP as its divisional chief in Karachi and later quit the party after it was banned.
• September 24: Police arrested SSP leader Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi from Jhang in Punjab.
• August 2: Interior Minister Rehman Malik, however, accused SSP for the assassination of Haider. Talking to reporters at the Parliament House, Malik said there were reports of death threats to Haider’s life, which had been conveyed to certain senior officials.
• July 11: The SFs arrested at least 53 suspects, including the former chief of the SSP, during the ongoing crackdown against banned organisations in Southern Punjab. Sources said that Police arrested former SSP ‘chief’ Tanveer and 19 other suspects of the same outfit from Khanewal.
• July 1: A cadre of the SSP, Qari Noor Muhammad (35), was shot dead in Khokhrapar Police Station area of Karachi. Sources said Qari Noor Muhammad, a Pesh-Imam of a mosque, and his friend Muneer (35), received bullet wounds when four assailants riding on two motorcycles opened fire at them while they were sitting outside the mosque.
• June 14: A leader of the SSP was shot dead by two unidentified assailants in the Mobina Town Police limits at Karachi in Sindh.
• June 5: Unidentified assailants riding a motorcycle shot dead a SSP cadre, Shehzad (25), in Petal Wali Gali under Gulbahar Police Station area of Karachi in Sindh.
• May 28: A person belonging to the Shia community was killed and some others were wounded in a clash between two rival sects at Islam Chowk in Orangi Town of Karachi in Sindh. The clash took place between activists of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), the frontal organisation of SSP, and a Shia group. The slained Shia person was identified as Shehzad alias Sajju.
• April 23: A Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) cadre, Athar Jadoon, who was injured in an attack, succumbed to his injuries. Athar was shot at near the Darul Uloom at Korangi in Karachi on April 22.
• April 22: A senior cadre of the SSP, Athar, was critically injured following a shot at incident near Darul Uloom locality under Awami Colony Police Station of Korangi town in Karachi. Landhi Town SP Haider Sultan said the incident occurred in Sector 28 of Korangi where unidentified assailants opened fire on the victim Athar while he was passing by on his motorcycle.
• March 30: A SSP cadre was shot dead by unidentified motorcyclists in Karachi. According to the Police, the deceased, Mohammed Nisaar, was sitting at his shop in Godhraan Camp Wali Gali, when four men on two motorcycles came over and opened indiscriminate fire at him, killing him on the spot. The four men managed to escape after leaving a motorcycle behind.
• March 11: An attempt was also made on Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, a leader of the SSP, in which he was injured, while his son lost his life. Maulana Ghafoor Nadeem was shot at on his way to the city courts near Annu Bhai Park in Nazimabad in Karachi.
• March 2: The Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the SSP and TTP were involved in terrorist activities in the country and warned of strict action against them. Referring to the SSP, the interior minister said it had close links to al-Qaeda and Taliban. Malik also added that he was facing serious life threats himself and had received threatening letters.

• November 20: In a suspected sectarian incident, the general secretary of the banned Sunni outfit SSP Karachi chapter, Engineer Ilyas Zubair, was shot dead and provincial information secretary, Qari Shafiqur Rehman Alvi, wounded at Teen Hatti under the Jamshed Quarters Police Station jurisdiction in Karachi. The two men were going to a mosque near Teen Hatti shrine, when unidentified men on a motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire at them.
• October 23: Police claimed the arrest of a Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan terrorist, Qaisar Mauvia, from Sector F-12, and also apprehended 60 suspects from different parts of the federal capital Islamabad. Police said Mauvia was involved in target killing and other illegal activities in the country. Meanwhile, a senior Police officer said the Police had arrested 80 suspects in the last three days. He said the Police continued the operation on October 23 and arrested 60 suspects from Dhok Noon, Dhok Makhan, Bhatta, Sohan, Pind Warian, Khana Dak, Khana East, Koral, Ghori Town, Kalinger and other slums in the Aabpara and Margallah police precincts. The official said police had seized 22 guns, 10 pistols, two Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition and 102 bottles of liquor from them. Most of the arrested persons were from Waziristan and Afghanistan. Separately, Police arrested four alleged terrorists from Farooqabad during a crackdown on suspicious persons.
• October 19: Unidentified assailants shot dead a former activist of a banned outfit near his house in the Rehan Colony of Bahawalpur in Punjab province. Islamuddin had been divisional convener of the banned Sunni outfit, the SSP. After its proscription, he used to reportedly earn his livelihood by selling edibles on a handcart. He was coming from his house near Shama Cinema on the Multan Road when two motorcyclists shot at him and fled. He later died at the Bahawal Victoria Hospital.
• September 26: An activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi (MQM-H) was shot dead near Naeem Hospital at Malir No. 15 within the limits of Saudabad Police station in Karachi. Police said Mudasir, 30, was on his way on a motorbike when unidentified assailants shot at him and managed to escape. The victim, an area distributor of a food company, succumbed to his injuries later. The deceased was also a supporter of the SSP and was the witness in five high profile cases of sectarian killings.
• September 20: Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies are searching for 83 high profile terrorists wanted for various crimes, ranging from the attack on former President Pervez Musharraf to fanning the separatist movement in Balochistan. According to a list maintained by the Interior Ministry, 41 of the most wanted terrorists belong to Punjab, 21 to Sindh, 13 to Balochistan and eight to the NWFP. Of the 83 terrorists, Bramdagh Bugti tops the list with 31 information reports registered against him. The available data shows the majority of the terrorists belong to various sectarian and terrorist organisations, including the HUJI, SSP, LeJ and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP). The majority of the “most wanted” belong to the LJ and the SMP and are wanted in various high profile cases, including assassination attempts targeting Musharraf, former premier Shaukat Aziz and the Karachi Corps commander; the blasts at the Sheraton hotel and foreign embassies; arms smuggling; target killings of rival groups, doctors, Police and intelligence officials and personnel; kidnapping for ransom; and attacks on imambargahs (Shia places of worship) and mosques.
• September 1: Police and security agencies arrested two suspects affiliated with the banned SSP outfit and involved in arranging manpower for terrorist activities. Official sources identified the alleged terrorists as Abu Waqas and Mohammad Akram. The arrest was made during a raid by a joint team of the capital police and security agencies in Bhara Kahu. Literature regarding jihad, cellular phones and SIMs were recovered from their possession. The duo is accused of arranging potential recruits for the outfit’s cause in the capital’s rural area and its adjacent cities and towns for education and training. First, they used to arrange potential recruits and bring them to a seminary located in Bhara Kahu where they were indoctrinated. Subsequently, the selected recruits were shifted to Waziristan in FATA for training in terrorist activities, including suicide bombing, ambush and handling of weapons and explosives. The suspects recruited a large number of teenage boys and youth, the sources added.
• August 17: Armed men shot dead Allama Ali Sher Hyderi, chief of the banned SSP, along with his associate Imtiaz Phulpoto at Khairpur in the Sindh province. Sources said Allama Hyderi was returning home after delivering a speech at a religious gathering in the Dost Muhammad Abro village within the limits of the Ahmedpur Police Station when he was attacked. Police sources said one of the attackers, identified as Aashiq Ali Jagirani, was also killed in retaliatory fire by Hyderi’s bodyguards. The murder reportedly bore all indications of a sectarian killing, with the head of the local police saying “it was a targeted attack on Allama Hyderi”.
  The SSP leader’s murder triggered violence in major towns of Sindh. There were reports of aerial firing and armed SSP activists forced shopkeepers to close their shops. The Army and the Rangers were called out to assist the Police in maintaining the law and order. The protesters removed the main railway tracks, suspending train link to the upcountry. There were reports that the house of the suspected killer had been torched by the people in Luqman town. Two persons were killed and another sustained injuries in firing by paramilitary forces that tried to stop an angry mob from removing railway tracks.
  Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi has been named as successor to Allama Hyderi. Allama Hyderi, who hailed from Khairpur, was the fourth SSP chief to be killed since it was formed in the late 1980s. After the Sunni outfit was banned by former President Pervez Musharraf in February 2002, it was operating under the name of Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama’at.
• August 11: The Government told the National Assembly that it had asked provinces to keep a watch on the banned Sunni militant outfit SSP, which is accused of fomenting recent violence in the Punjab province’s Jhang and Gojra towns. Interior Minister Rehman Malik acknowledged there was a lot of truth in concern voiced by an opposition lawmaker from Jhang who said the Government must act against the SSP to avoid the kind of situation it had to face in Swat valley of the North West Frontier Province after Taliban militants were allowed to thrive there. Malik reportedly said it was a fact that the SSP had had been involved in terrorist activities in the past and added “The provincial governments have been asked to keep a watch on its activities.” The PML-Q member Sheikh Waqqas Akram said all of some 200 SSP activists arrested in Jhang after a judge took a Suo Motu notice of the July 21 violence were later released “one by one” and that he learned during a visit to Gojra that members of the same group attacked Christians in Gojra for unproven blasphemy, burning seven of them alive. He also that a SSP leader had been allowed to address the arrested group’s militants in jail and to go around the country without regard to what he called restrictions for banned organisations.
• August 9: The SFs killed a SSP leader after an exchange of fire in the Malanari area of Dera Ismail Khan District of NWFP. Official sources said Miftahullah, a SSP leader who was allegedly involved in sectarian killings in Dera city, was shot dead during a search operation.
• August 5: The Government announced that 25 extremist and militant groups and welfare organisations affiliated to them have so far been banned because of their involvement in terrorist activities. In a written reply submitted on August 5 in response to a question in the National Assembly, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the banned organisations included Al Qaeda, SMP, Tehrik Nifaz-i-Fiqah Jafaria, SSP, JuD, Al Akhtar Trust, Al Rasheed Trust (ART), Tehrik-i-Islami, JeM, LeJ, TTP, Islamic Students Movement, Khairun Nisa International Trust, Tehrik-i-Islam Pakistan, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), LeT, Lashkar-i-Islam, Balochistan Liberation Army, Jamiat-i-Ansar, Jamiatul Furqan, Hizbut Tehrir, Khuddam-i-Islam and Millat-i-Islamia Pakistan.
• August 2: Paramilitary troops were deployed in the Azafi Abadi village, also known as Koriaan, in the Punjab province where 10 people were killed in violence between Muslims and Christians over the alleged desecration of the Koran. Pakistan Rangers personnel took up positions in and around Azafi Abadi, a day after it witnessed communal clashes. Persons from the two communities reportedly exchanged fire and over 80 homes of Christians were set ablaze by mobs. However, despite deployment of the Pakistan Rangers, the situation in the area remained tense throughout the day as some Christians refused to bury their dead until Police registered a complaint against those responsible for the killings and arson. “We have arrested a number of suspects and exemplary punishment will be given to those involved in heinous crimes. This is a crime against humanity,” Rana Sanaullah, Law Minister of Punjab, told reporters. He said some outlawed religious groups were involved in the violence but did not name them. A Police source said that activists of the banned SSP and Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) were involved in the violence. “Their armed activists from other parts of Punjab gathered in Koriaan village,” the source said. Violence erupted in the village, part of Gojra sub-division of Toba Tek Singh District and located 160 km from Lahore, when a group of Muslims alleged three Christians burnt pages of the Koran during a wedding last week. At least seven Christians, including four women and two children, were burnt alive. Three others were killed in Police firing on August 1. The Federal Minister for Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and provincial minister Sanaullah, however, said no Christian was involved in desecrating the Koran.
• July 16: Two more activists of the outlawed Sunni group SSP, including a guard of the group’s central leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, were killed in Karachi. One of them died at a hospital after being injured in the clash a day earlier while another’s body was recovered from Model Colony.
  The body of 26-year-old Anwar Ali alias Murad, a resident of Orangi Town and the personal security guard of SSP central leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, was recovered from Malir Saudabad in the evening. He had been abducted from the RCG Ground Malir a day earlier. Deputy Superintendent of Police, Farooq Sher Zaman, said Anwar Ali was abducted when he, along with some other SSP cadres went there to force shopkeepers to shut their businesses down. “The police found his body from a railway track in Saudabad. He was brutally tortured before being killed. A single bullet was shot at his forehead following the torture, killing him instantly,” Zaman said. Another SSP cadre, Ghufran, a resident of Future Colony in Landhi, who was wounded in the violence on July 15, succumbed to his injuries at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre hospital. Ghufran is reportedly the younger brother of Hafiz Amanullah, a SSP militant who was killed on June 3, 2009 in Gulshan-e-Iqbal when he, along with his children, went out for recreational purposes. Two other SSP cadres, Saqib and Arshad, were also injured in the violence on July 15.
• July 15: Unidentified men killed the central legal adviser of the outlawed Sunni group, the SSP, Hafiz Ahmed Buksh, in Model Colony in Karachi. Buksh’s vehicle was indiscriminately fired at when he was on his way home and his driver, Nasir, was also killed in the attack. Saudabad Supervisory Police Officer Farooq Sher Zaman told that the assailants used 9-mm pistols in the attack, adding that the incident took place shortly after the deceased left the Masjid-e-Ibrahim mosque.
• June 18: In a crackdown, the Bahawalpur and Vehari Police arrested 40 people who allegedly remained associated with banned outfits and sectarian groups. Raids were reportedly conducted in Bahawalpur, Ahmedpur East, Hasilpur, Khairpur Tamewali and Uch Sharif. The Bahawalpur Regional Police Officer Mushtaq Ali Sukhera confirmed that activists of former “jihadi or sectarian groups” had been arrested during these raids. He said those people had been taken into custody whose names figured on the Police’s fourth schedule, which carries the names of those people who violate their surety bonds of good behaviour and non-participation in objectionable activities. In case of non-compliance, they are liable to be detained or face new cases on these charges, he stated. Among those arrested were Abdul Ghani, a SSP activist from Mauza Qaimpur near Hasilpur, Aamir Shahzad of Ahmedpur East and Habibur Rehman of Khairpur Tamewali, who was allegedly present on the premises of Lal Masjid in Islamabad when an operation was launched during the regime of Pervez Musharraf. 25 activists of a banned outfit were arrested during the crackdown in Vehari District. Sources said eight persons were arrested from Vehari and the rest from Mailsi and Burewala.
• May 27: Another activist of the banned Sunni outfit SSP was shot dead in the Aziz Bhatti Police limits of Karachi within three days of the murder of another SSP activist. The incident sparked tension in Gulshan Town, as armed men resorted to aerial firing, forced the shopkeepers to pull down shutters and also attacked Imambargahs (Shia places of worship) in the area. 38-year old Qari Amanullah was shot dead while his son Sufian was injured by two gunmen near a Tandur in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. According to Police, the deceased was a former Sipah-e-Sahaba unit in-charge.
• May 24: A senior activist of the banned SSP was shot dead in a target killing. 40-year old Allauddin was the Lines Area Unit in-charge of the banned Sunni outfit, and had earlier worked for the LeJ. A source in the Criminal Investigation Department told that the deceased was currently engaged in re-organising the SSP in Karachi. Following the incident, participants of Allauddin’s funeral prayers started shooting guns in the air outside Imambargah-e-Ali Raza. Subsequently, dozens of people belonging to the Fiqa-e-Jafferia gathered on the road and started rioting by burning tyres and pelting stones on passing vehicles.
• April 20: The Islamabad Police announced the arrest of two hard-core terrorists from the federal capital who were acting as planners and facilitators for carrying out terrorist acts in the city. The SSP, Tahir Alam Khan, said Khairullah Mehsud, a resident of South Waziristan, who was living in Sector G-9/2, was arrested from F-9 Park. Intelligence agencies have reportedly traced his links with terrorist groups in South Waziristan, which he developed after the Lal Masjid incident. “He was in contact with Gul Bahadur in South Waziristan and Misal Khan in Akora Khattak. During the course of investigations Khairullah made certain revelations, which eventually led to the arrest of another terrorist identified as Khurram Shahzad son of Lal Afzal who had undergone terrorism training at the camp of a banned terrorist organization,” the SSP said. He said Khurram Shahzad had visited the tribal areas as well as Hangu, Bara and Peshawar quite frequently and during those visits he had taken ‘recruits’ from Islamabad for training in camps established by the terrorist groups there. The SSP also said Khurram Shahzad and other ‘recruits’ who accompanied him on those visits, got training to handle explosive materials, especially making lethal ‘oil canister’ bombs.
• March 23: A member of the banned Sunni group SSP was killed in an apparent sectarian attack in Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP. Abu Khan, an SSP activist, was near his shop on the outskirts of Dera Ismail Khan when two gunmen shot him dead and later escaped on their motorbike, witnesses told. A boy on the street was also wounded. Local Police official Rasheed Khan said “He was an active member of Sipah-e-Sahaba… It seems to be a sectarian killing.”
• March 16: 12 activists and leaders of the outlawed Sunni group SSP were arrested in a crackdown by Police in Dera Ismail Khan. Sources said the Police had launched a crackdown on the SSP and arrested 12 activists, including principal secretary of provincial legislator Khalifa Abdul Qayyum. Raids were reportedly conducted in Alam Sher Colony, Madena Colony, Shiekh Yousaf Adda and Katch Painda Khan.
• February 2: Unidentified men shot dead a former secretary general of the banned Sunni group SSP. Chaudhry Muhammad Yousuf, also a close aide to the local Member of National Assembly Sheikh Waqas Akram, was on a morning walk when armed men attacked him near Mohallah Babrana in Jhang. Yousuf, along with Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, had founded the SSP in 1985.

• November 23: The Taliban are present in Karachi and have links with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and other banned religious organisations, but they have no intention of carrying out attacks in the provincial capital if not provoked by a political party or the Government, said Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Mullah Omer.
• November 21: Malik, the Adviser on Interior Affairs said there were 17,000 seminaries in the country and 3,000 of them were in Karachi alone. He said the Government would regularise them in consultation with religious scholars of all schools of thought. He stated that al Qaeda was using the LeJ, SSP and TTP for carrying out its activities.
• July 30: Unidentified militants killed the Dera Ismail Khan District Account Officer Syed Arif Hussain Shah, police said on July 30, Daily Times reported. Two motorcycle borne gunmen opened fire at Shah, who hailed from the Shia community, near the Pir Zakori graveyard on Zhob Road, when he was en route to office. The police termed the incident a possible act of sectarian violence. While the gunmen escaped after the firing, no group has claimed responsibility for the killing so far. Angry people blocked the road in front of the District Hospital in protest and reportedly shouted slogans against the banned Sunni militant outfit Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and the local administration. Soon after the incident, unidentified persons reportedly opened fire and wounded two activists of the Ansarullah, a branch of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), at Din Pur Chowk, The News reported.
• July 12: According to Daily Times, banned sectarian and jihadi groups are flouting the Government bar and are re-emerging in various parts of Karachi. Dawn News stated that sectarian slogans, flags and posters of defunct sectarian groups are visible on walls across the city, indicating re-emergence of the banned groups. The Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), the Shia group Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) and Mukhtar Force are the most conspicuous groups, the report added. The channel quoted sources as saying that the sealed offices of the groups have reopened, working under different identities. Some of the groups held meetings in Qayyumabad, North Karachi and Soldier Bazaar, the sources said.
• June 24: The banned SSP has once again rolled up its sleeves and started getting active across Pakistan, and especially in Karachi, but with a new name Ahle Sunnat wa Aljamaat Pakistan (ASWJP) which roughly translates into The Sunni Party. It has started by requesting Sunni people to voluntarily shut down their businesses and offices on Youm-e-Shahdat (the day of martyrdom) of Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique (RA) on the 22nd of Jumadi-Uthani, June 27. The central information secretary of the SSP and ASWJP, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem said that they had started work in the name of the ASWJP because of the ban on the SSP. “The case against the ban is in court,” he added. The SSP was banned in 2002 by the government and most of its leaders were arrested. The leaders were released in 2003-04 and started limited work under ASWJP. It organized a rally in April 2008 in Karachi after surfacing after six years.
• February 29: The banned Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) reportedly drew several hundred supporters near its headquarters in Karachi as it denounced the blasphemous caricatures of the holy Prophet published in some Danish newspapers, and declared jihad against Denmark and the West if they continued to insult Islam. It was the fist major public rally by the SSP since it was banned in 2001. The SSP’s protest took place after Friday prayers at the SSP headquarters at Masjid-e-Siddique Akbar in the Nagan Chowrangi area.
• February 10: The security agencies arrested 40 people suspected to be activists of banned militant groups. Sources said that the operation was launched after the list of militant activists was revised by security agencies after the suicide attack outside the Lahore High Court on January 10. The Ghaziabad police arrested 30 men from a rented house near Muhammadpura railway crossing. Separately, police raided the RA Bazaar and arrested seven suspects. The arrested belonged to the banned Sunni group LeJ and were allegedly involved in the Rawalpindi blast. During another raid in Saddar Bazaar, police arrested three members of the LeJ. The Mughalpura Superintendent of Police, P. Sajjad Manj, said Rustam Ali, who was a member of the proscribed SSP, owned the house. However, he escaped the raid. Two Kalashnikovs, three 222s, a shotgun and rifles were seized from them.

• December 9: A team of Lahore Police arrested a wanted terrorist from the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan after a two-hour long shootout in Mandi Bahauddin. Muhammad Saleem alias Hafiz Bilal, a resident of Gujranwala, had planted a four kg improvised explosive device at the Bab-al-Imran mosque in Malakwal on June 30, 2006. Police also seized two Kalashnikov rifles and more than 2,000 bullets from the Saleem’s possession. Authorities had announced a PKR 500,000 reward for Saleem’s arrest.
• August 24: In a suspected sectarian incident, unidentified assailants shot dead an activist of the banned SSP in the Dera Ismail Khan city of NWFP. 22-year old Kaleen Ullah was shot dead in the Tareenabad Colony in Cantonment Police Station’s jurisdiction.
• August 12: The provincial secretary-general of the SSP, Aslam Farooqui, was shot dead in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Alam Zeb, brother of the deceased leader, caught hold of one the attackers and handed him over to police. A police official said one Shoaib Hussain of Parachinar, who belonged to a paramilitary force, had been arrested.
• July 9: Unidentified assailants shot dead an activist of the outlawed Sunni group SSP in the jurisdiction of Shah Qabool police station in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Police officer Latif said that Hayat Khan was shot dead at around 2 a.m. outside his Nishtarabad house.
• July 7: Police in the Mansehra district of the NWFP released four central leaders of the outlawed Sunni group SSP, a day after their arrest. Hafiz Alam Tariq, Maulana Amir Mahavia and two other leaders were reportedly arrested from the district’s Ghazikot area along with two triple-M licensed guns. Sources said they were released following interrogation.
• June 7: Police at Dera Ismail Khan in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) arrested Rauf Baloch, a leader of the banned Sunni outfit SSP, who was wanted in various cases of sectarian terrorism and murder.
• April 17: Activists of the SSP are conspiring for the release of their imprisoned colleagues from various jails through violent means, according to intelligence reports submitted to the Interior Ministry. The intelligence reports revealed that SSP leaders have directed the group’s district presidents to tell their jailed colleagues to create trouble in jails. Intelligence reports said that SSP presidents of southern Punjab districts, Lahore, Gujranwala, Karachi, Sukkur and Dera Ismail Khan have been directed to help their jailed comrades escape from police custody on their way from jails to courts. 48 SSP activists have been imprisoned at Adyala Jail and eight of them are on death row. Most of the SSP activists have been detained in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail, the Bahawalpur Central Jail and jails in Karachi.
• April 16: Intelligence agencies have warned that three would-be suicide bombers have set out for Islamabad to target government functionaries if security agencies crack down on the Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Fareedia seminaries in the national capital. Intelligence agencies submitted reports to the Interior Ministry a few days ago warning that the three men, including two Uzbeks, had left Darra Adam Khel in the NWFP for Islamabad to carry out suicide attacks. 20-year old Ikramullah, a resident of Gedaro Killi, Zarghun Khel and member of the banned SSP, reportedly heads the group. The group, trained at a camp located in Shawal, Waziristan, was reportedly sent by Tariq Mazid Khel, who runs a training camp at Zarghun Khel and claims to have contacts with intelligence agencies.
• March 29: SSP asks President Pervez Musharraf to help resolve the ”decades-old conflict” between the Shias and Sunnis.
• March 13: Gunmen on a motorcycle killed Maulana Farooq Ahmed, a Sunni cleric, and reportedly a member of the outlawed SSP in Dera Ismail Khan.
  Gunmen injured Hafiz Ishaq, a SSP activist in Dera Ismail Khan.
  March 8: A suspected member of banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) outfit, identified as Sarwar Alam alias Alami, was shot dead by gunmen at Dera Ismail Khan on March 8, reported Daily Times.
• February 24: Three suspected militants were killed at Cheechawatni near Multan in the Punjab province on February 24 when the explosives they were carrying on a bicycle detonated, The Hindu reported. Police said that two of the men were from a Madrassa (seminary) that had links with the banned Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahiba Pakistan (SSP).
• February 20: The Government on February 20 claimed to have traced a network of terrorists allegedly involved in the killings of former Member of National Assembly Maulana Azam Tariq (chief of the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan [SSP], provincial minister Pir Binyamin and 41 other people in various incidents that occurred in Punjab and Islamabad between 2003 and 2006. “Two members of the network have been arrested by Islamabad Police’s CID department from Sector G-6/2 and efforts are being made to catch their six accomplices who are reported to be hiding in the capital,” a senior official of the interior ministry told Dawn. The arrested were identified as Mudassar Ali alias Usman Chaudhry and Mohammad Ali alias Abbas.
  The official informed that in October 2003, the accused had intercepted Azam Tariq’s car near Golra More Toll Plaza in Islamabad and opened fire, killing Tariq, his three security guards and a driver.

• October 31: Two activists of the banned Sunni group SSP, Shahnawaz alias Shani and Shaukat alias Javed alias Chand, are sentenced to death by a Karachi court for killing six employees of the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) during an attack on their vehicle in October 2003.
• October 18: Police at Mianwali in the Punjab province arrests three alleged terrorists, identified as Noor Muhammad, Abdul Waheed and Rao Saifullah, belonging to the defunct Sunni group SSP. They reportedly wanted to carry out an attack on a Shia shrine in the Sheikhupura district.
• September 2: An anti-terrorism court in Peshawar sends the owners of four video shops arrested on August 31 to jail after charging them with selling CDs and cassettes containing anti-Shia speeches by leaders of the banned group SSP.
• April 7: Activists of the outlawed SSP hold a rally in Islamabad and reportedly vowed to establish a global caliphate, beginning with Pakistan. In a rally attended by thousands of activists of the banned group to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, SSP leaders called for an Islamic theocracy in Pakistan
• April 4: Five SSP activists are sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi on charges of killing a police constable and an under-trial prisoner in an ambush on a prison van near the city courts in 2002.
• February 21: The authorities in Karachi detain two top SSP leaders, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem and Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, in a bid to contain the wave of protests in the city.

• December 30: Police believe a member of the SSP has entered Japan with the aim of setting up a base in that country.
• December 5: Intelligence agencies have uncovered a plot by leaders of the banned Sunni outfits, SSP and LeJ, who had directed their operatives to form suicide squads to kill Shia members of the Legislative Council of the Northern Areas.
• November 6: Security agencies in the Punjab province detain 32 of 190 activists, listed by the Government, of banned religious organizations, including SSP, during Eid celebrations from Multan, Bahawalpur, Sargodha and Faisalabad ahead of the cricket Test match between Pakistan and England.
• August 12: Despite a ban imposed by the Government on the participation of defunct extremist outfits in the forthcoming local bodies’ elections, the SSP, a sectarian outfit banned twice for terrorist activities, is actively taking part in the elections.
• July 20: Security agencies arrests Maulana Ali Sher Haidery, patron-in-chief of the SSP (now known as Millat-e-Islamia), from his native town of Khairpure Meeras in the Sindh province.
• July 18: President Pervez Musharraf accuses banned groups like the SSP and JeM of forcing their ideology upon others, although he did not link them to the London bombings.
• May 4: A leader from the defunct Sunni group SSP, Tariq Javed, is arrested in New York for allegedly lying on his immigration papers about his terror links.
• April 15: Four SSP cadres are arrested for their alleged involvement in the bombing of a Shia shrine in the Jhal Magsi district on March 19, in which at least 50 people were killed.
• March 3: An Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi acquitted an activist of the proscribed Sunni group, SSP, identified as Mohammad Faisal alias Pehalwan, in a sectarian killing case. He was accused of killing Dr Sibtain Ali Dosa and two of his associates in the Kharadar area of Karachi on May 2, 2000.
• February 15: Tatheer-ul-Islam, an absconding most-wanted activist of the banned SSP, is arrested from the Lyari area of Karachi. His name was reportedly included in the Red Book of the CID.
• February 3: The police in North West Frontier Province arrests Qari Anwar Khan, a SSP leader, from Charsadda in connection with the assassination of Shia religious leader in Gilgit, Agha Ziauddin, in a suicide bomb attack at Gilgit in the Northern Areas of PoK on January 8. The suicide bombing had led to sectarian violence that claimed at least 17 lives in Gilgit.
• January 30: Two unidentified men open fire outside the Jamia Mamoor mosque on Tariq Road in Karachi, killing a cleric, Maulana Haroon Qasmi, belonging to the outlawed SSP and his bodyguard, Aqil Ahmed. Consequently, hundreds of agitated SSP cadres, primarily seminary students, indulged in arson and damaged some vehicles and also attacked a police check post.

• October 18: Special instruction are issued to the provinces not to allow Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (erstwhile SSP), Islami Tehirk Pakistan (erstwhile Tehrik-e-Jaffria), Khuddamul Islam (erstwhile Jaish-e-Mohammad), Jama’atul Furqaan and others banned outfits to collect donations during Ramazan and on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.
• October 7: At least 40 people are killed and more than 100 injured in two bomb blasts in the city of Multan when hundreds of people had gathered to mark the first anniversary of the killing of Sunni leader and SSP chief Maulana Azim Tariq outside Islamabad.
• August 6: Police in Vehari, Multan, arrests, Qari Ubaidullah, a terrorist of the outlawed SSP.
• April 22: Waris Ali Janwari, the father of defunct SSP chief Allama Ali Sher Hydri, is killed in an exchange of fire between police and SSP activists over the issue of a plot of land in Khairpur. Hydri’s three brothers and two police personnel are reportedly wounded during the encounter.
• April 2: A Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi grants bail to Amanullah Sial, former member of the National Assembly and one of the accused in the murder case of Maulana Azam Tariq, leader of the outlawed Sunni group SSP on October 6.
• March 26: The Lahore High Court orders release of Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi, chief of the Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP, now known as Millat Jaferia Pakistan), who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of Sunni leader and chief of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Maulana Azam Tariq.
• March 19: The Lahore Police arrests former Member of National Assembly, Amanullah Sial, who had been declared a proclaimed offender in the Maulana Azam Tariq (SSP leader) murder case.
• March 7: Police have registered complaints lodged by relatives of some of the 47 slain people, who named seven activists of the outlawed SSP, blaming them for the March 2 attack on Shias in Quetta, capital of the Balochistan province.
• March 5: At least two activists of the outlawed SSP are injured in a shootout with the police in Gilgit. The incident occurred when the police tried to remove the hurdles put on the road by SSP activists, who had gathered at Napura, where a procession was to be held by the rival Shia community.
• January 3: Security agencies in Lahore arrests six terrorists, belonging to the outlawed SSP and JeM, in connection with the December 25, 2003, assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi.

• December 4: Authorities in Pakistan occupied Kashmir outlaws six terrorist groups, including SSP (now known as Millat-e-Islami).
• November 21: Law enforcement agencies seal eight offices of proscribed terrorist groups in the Sialkot district, including two offices of the SSP.
• November 16: Law enforcement agencies seal many offices of three proscribed terrorist groups, including SSP, during a countrywide crackdown.
• November 15: The Federal Government proscribes three religio-political outfits under the Anti-Terrorist Act 1997, including SSP, now known as Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan.
• October 7: One person is killed as angry mourners indulged in violence in Islamabad after the funeral of Maulana Azam Tariq, chief of the outlawed Sunni group SSP, who was assassinated on October 6.
• October 6: Maulana Azam Tariq, SSP chief and a Member of the National Assembly, is assassinated along with four other persons by three unidentified gunmen in Islamabad.
• May 17: An activist of the proscribed Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP, now known as Millat-i-Islam Party), is shot dead by unidentified assailants when he was returning to his residence at an unnamed place in Multan.
• April 20: Maulana Azam Tariq, SSP chief, says that he and his followers had formed a new party to work for the “enforcement of Islamic edicts” in Pakistan. He said the new group is called Millat-e-Islamia (MeI) and said it wanted to bring about an Islamic revolution.
• April 18: SSP President, Maulana Azam Tariq, asks Lahore High Court to suspend the Government’s orders freezing his party’s bank accounts and imposing functional restrictions on it, till his petition against the ban on his party is decided.
• March 7: An SSP cadre is killed in North Karachi area, under Khwaja Ajmer Nagri police station-limits, in Sindh Province.
• January 6: Four SSP leaders are arrested in Peshawar after a court dismissed their pre-arrest bail application. The accused are charged of taking out a protest procession against the killing of a person in Karachi during 2002.

• November 15: An anti-terrorism court in Dera Ghazi Khan issues non-bailable arrest warrants against SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq in a case against him and four others for allegedly delivering highly provocative speeches at the Nabuwwat Conference, in Jampur, on July 31, 2000.
• October 30: SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq is released after 11 months in detention at a prison in Rawalpindi.
• October 29: An SSP activist is killed by two unidentified terrorists within the precincts of Clifton police station in Karachi. 
• October 27: Lahore High Court orders that SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq be set free after the expiry of his detention period on October 30.
• October 12: SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq declared elected as Member of the National Assembly (MNA) in the October 10-general elections. 
• September 4: The dead body found in a Karachi graveyard on September is 1 identified as that of one of the sons of Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, a founding member of the SSP. 
• August 13: SSP secretary general Khadim Hussain Dhalu is arrested in Jhang district.
• July 6: SSP activist Muhammad Aslam Muawia sentenced to life imprisonment by a special Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore for the January 11, 1998-Mominpura graveyard massacre, in which 27 Shias were killed and 34 more injured.
• July 2: 12 SSP terrorists arrested for allegedly planning attacks on religious places in Rawalpindi.
• May 22: Local SSP leader killed by two unidentified armed assailants in Gulistan-e-Mustafa, Karachi.
• May 17: Karachi Anti Terrorism Court sentences two SSP cadres to life for killing 10 persons in an attack on a mosque in the Al-Falah Colony, Karachi.
• May 11: Front ranking SSP leader Mehmood Madni arrested for the May 8-Karachi bomb blast in, which 16 persons, including 11 French nationals, were killed.
• May 9: Maulana Ehsanul Haq Farooqi, an SSP leader, arrested by Sialkot police for delivering a speech against President Musharraf in Wadala Sindhian village, Daska.
• May 5: SSP cadre killed by two unidentified gunmen in the Gulbahar area of Karachi.
• April 27: A Karachi Anti-Terrorism court awards two death sentences to an SSP activist in separate murder cases.
• April 15: Two SSP cadres indicted by a Karachi Anti-Terrorism Court in a sectarian killing case in which 10 persons were killed and five others injured in Al-Falah Colony, off Shahrea-i-Faisal.
• March 30: A review board of three Lahore High Court judges recommends continued incarceration of SSP chief Maulana Azam Tariq.
• March 16: Five SSP cadres killed near Merik Sial in Jhang by a group of 10 unidentified assailants.
• March 15: Karachi police arrests six SSP cadres allegedly involved in approximately 27 major incidents of sectarian killings in Karachi, including that of six doctors.
• March 13: North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government extends detention of senior SSP leader Khalifa Abdul Qayyum for further 30 days.
• February 28: Police allege that the SSP was responsible for the February 26-massacre at a Shiite mosque in Rawalpindi, in which 11 persons were killed and 14 others injured.
• February 11: SSP files formal review application before the government seeking reversal of its proscription.
• January 15: In a crackdown on accounts of banned organisations, SSP’s accounts are seized by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
• January 12: President Pervez Musharraf announces proscription of the SSP during a televised address to the nation.
• January 5: 200 SSP activists arrested in a series of raids by security agencies on January 4-5 in Sindh and Punjab provinces.

• July 6: SSP activist Muhammad Aslam Muawia sentenced to life imprisonment by a special Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore for the January 11, 1998-Mominpura graveyard massacre, in which 27 Shias were killed and 34 more injured.
• July 2: 12 SSP terrorists arrested for allegedly planning attacks on religious places in Rawalpindi.
• May 22: Local SSP leader killed by two unidentified armed assailants in Gulistan-e-Mustafa, Karachi.
• May 17: Karachi Anti Terrorism Court sentences two SSP cadres to life for killing 10 persons in an attack on a mosque in the Al-Falah Colony, Karachi.
• May 11: Front ranking SSP leader Mehmood Madni arrested for the May 8-Karachi bomb blast in, which 16 persons, including 11 French nationals, were killed.
• May 9: Maulana Ehsanul Haq Farooqi, an SSP leader, arrested by Sialkot police for delivering a speech against President Musharraf in Wadala Sindhian village, Daska.
• December 30 – Five SSP cadres arrested during raids by law enforcing authorities on the outfit’s Karachi office.
• December 4 – SSP Karachi’s Finance Secretary, Engineer Ilyas Zubair, voluntarily surrendered before the Chief of Crime Investigations Agency (CIA), who later detained him under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO).
• October 28 – A police personnel and 17 members of the Christian community including five children were killed and nine others injured when six unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire on a church in Model Town, Bahawalpur. The SSP is suspected to be responsible for the massacre.
• October 19 – Pakistan authorities, in response to anti-US protests, barred SSP chief Azam Tariq from entering Sindh province where major rallies and protest demonstrations against US air strikes in Afghanistan were taking place. The ban was applicable for 30 days.
• October 16 –SSP leader Maulana Fazl-i-Ahad said in Peshawar that the outfit had decided to send its cadres for waging Jehad against the US. He indicated that a group of 80 SSP cadres were ready to leave for Afghanistan.
• October 15 – An SSP leader, Maulana Allah Wasaya Siddiqi, said that US air strikes on the erstwhile Taliban regime in Afghanistan “proved that America was the biggest terrorist of the world.”
• October 12 –SSP’s Senior Vice-President Khalifa Abdul Qayyum speaking in Dera Ismail Khan said that the US government had “proved itself to be a terrorist state.” Commenting on the air strikes against the erstwhile Taliban regime in Afghanistan, he claimed that Osama bin Laden was only being used as an excuse and the US was attempting to establish camps in the region.
• October 11 –At a protest rally in Peshawar, SSP provincial chief Maulana Fazal Ahad said that the US should withdraw from Afghanistan, failing which it would “taste fatal upset just like former Soviet Union during Afghan Jihad.” He also asked the cadres to enlist their names with the SSP high command for waging Jehad against ‘infidel forces’ and reiterated that the outfit would fight with the Taliban side by side after getting an approval from SSP central chief Azam Tariq.
• October 9 – SSP leader Syed Paryal Shah said in Khairpur, that US action in Afghanistan was not a war against Taliban but against Islam, and therefore, it was essential for the Muslims to declare Jehad against the US and its allies.
• September 29 – A news report said that 38 SSP activists were arrested during the preceding nine months in Dera Ismail Khan.
• September 16 – The SSP at a meeting in Peshawar, said Muslims of Pakistan would not tolerate any assistance by the Federal government to the USA in its possible attacks on the erstwhile Taliban regime. While declaring the US as the ‘biggest criminal in the world’, SSP leaders alleged that the terrorist acts in New York and Washington DC were a conspiracy to defame Islam.
• September 15 – SSP Sindh chapter Vice President Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem arrested from Karachi in connection with two cases in which five persons, including four brothers, were killed in 1995.
• August 14 – LeJ proscribed by President Pervez Musharraf
• July 1 – Two unidentified gunmen at the Basti Tareenabad in Dera Ismail Khan killed a SSP activist.
• June 23 – Two police personnel and an activist of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) were injured in Gilgit following an exchange of fire between security forces and activists of the SSP and the Tanzeem Ahle Sunnat.
• May 21 – Various Sunni sectarian outfits alleged that the country’s intelligence agencies were responsible for the killing of Maulana Saleem Qadri, the Sunni Tehreek chief on May 18, 2001. According to these outfits, the agencies were utilising the SSP to trigger sectarian violence among the Shia, Sunni, Deoband and Barelwi sects.
• May 21 – Four persons were killed in separate incidents of sectarian clashes in Dera Ismail Khan. In the first incident, an activist of the SSP, who was released from the local prison a few days earlier, was killed. Official sources indicated the involvement of Shia groups in the incident. Sources also said that the violence erupted consequent to the arrest of a Shia leader, Syed Hassan Ali Shah Kazmi, on a charge of allegedly delivering anti-state speeches. In apparent retaliation, certain SSP activists killed a Shia youth and injured two others. Police sources added that two more persons were killed in the clashes on the same day.
• April 30 – A Karachi Anti-terrorism Court holds two SSP activists guilty of killing a police personnel and his son on February 22, 2001 and sentences them to death.
• April 3 – Eight SSP activists arrested from Korangi in Karachi following clashes between two sectarian outfits.
• April – An anti-terrorism court sentenced two SSP activists to death for killing a former Deputy Superintendent of Police and his young son on February 22, 2001.
• March 12 – Nine persons including the a local SSP chief were killed and 11 others injured as three unidentified terrorists opened indiscriminate fire on a congregation at the Hayat-e-Islam mosque in Lahore. According to official sources, the attack was carried out in the most sensitive locality of Lahore where agencies like Garrison Security Force, Military Police and others are located. Sources also said that the attack was carried out despite tight security measures adopted in view of the presence of Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf in the city. The mosque is administered by the SSP. Official sources indicated that the attack could be in retaliation for the March 4 sectarian violence at Sheikhupura. An SSP spokesperson, Qazi Bahaur Rehman, alleged that the TJP was responsible for the massacre.
• March 4 – 13 persons, including two police personnel, were killed and four others injured in a series of four attacks by a group of six terrorists in Sheikhpura Four of the terrorists were arrested. Official sources said that the killings are alleged to be an outcome of SSP activist Haq Nawaz Jhangvi’s execution. SSP Sheikhpura chief, Zahid Mahmood Qasmi however, denied the outfit’s involvement in the attacks.
• March 2 – Two SSP activists arrested from the Orangi Extension area in Karachi for their alleged involvement in the killing of a TJP activist.
• March 1 – 13 persons were killed in sectarian violence at Hangu in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Official sources maintained that this followed an incident in which an unidentified person opened indiscriminate fire killing three persons and injuring another. Other sources however held that the killings were an aftermath of the execution of SSP activist Haq Nawaz Jhangvi.
• February 28 –SSP activist Haq Nawaz Jhangvi was executed in Mianwali Jail, Lahore after being held guilty for the December 1990 assassination of the Iranian Consul General, Agha Sadiq Ganji. Police had arrested hundreds of SSP activists for fear of violent protests after Jhangvi’s execution and possible clashes between rival sectarian groups from the majority Sunni and the minority Shi’ite sects. However, one person was killed and six others injured in an encounter between the protesting SSP activists and police at Mohallah Piplianwala in Jhang on the same day of the execution. Later at the funeral of Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, SSP leader Sheikh Hakim Ali, while warning of countrywide protests, said, “The government is responsible for killing our brother. It is done to please Iran.”
• February 22 – A former Deputy Superintendent of Police and his son killed. Later in April 2001 an anti-terrorism court sentenced two SSP activists to death for the killings.
• February 15 – , SSP General-Secretary Abdur Rauf Baloch arrested in the Gomal area of Dera Ismail Khan for his alleged involvement in the killing of five persons in Fateh village, on April 26, 1999.

• November 18 – A Karachi anti-terrorism court sentenced an SSP activist to a seven-year term for possessing illegal arms and creating terror.
• November 5 – Two SSP activists were killed and another injured when unidentified terrorists fired at them in Mirpurkhas. The SSP blamed the TJP for the killing.
• October 22 – Two SSP activists killed and eight others injured when two unidentified persons attacked their van in Karachi. The next day, two activists of the TJP were arrested for their suspected involvement in the killings.
• 1996 – A section comprising radical and extremist elements of the SSP walked out of the outfit to form the LeJ
• 1994 – 73 persons killed and more than 300 injured in Punjab’s worst year of violence. The SSP along with several other Sunni and Shia organisations were suspected to have participated in this violence.
• June 1992 – SSP activists for the first time, use a rocket launcher in an attack which killed five police personnel.
• December 1990 – Iran’s Counsel General in Lahore, Sadeq Ganji killed.
• February 1990 –SSP co-founder and chief, Maulana Jhangvi killed
• 1988 – A leader of the Shia outfit, Tehrik-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafaria (TNFJ) Arif Hussain Al-Hussaini killed.
• 1987 – Prominent Sunni leader Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Yazdani assassinated.
• 1986 – Prominent leader of the Sunni Ahl-e-Hadith, Allama Ehsan Elahi Zaheer assassinated

Syndicated from: AKC

Syndicated from: PAKISTAN DEFENCE BLOG

Syndicated from: Journeys to democracy

Syndicated from: PAMIR TIMES | Voices of the Mountain Communities

Syndicated from: PAKISTAN DEFENCE BLOG

Syndicated from: Pak Tea House

 

Six weeks ago, one of my colleagues met me at the airport when I arrived in Islamabad for the first time.  As I write this,  I am again at Benazir Bhutto airport, waiting for another new colleague to arrive.  As I sit in the busy arrivals hall, I reflect on my first few weeks.  Pakistan already feels like home.  People have been so friendly and welcoming.  And as Political Counsellor, working with Pakistan on international issues and explaining Pakistani politics to a British audience, I think I have the best job in the British High Commission.  Pakistanis never tire of discussing politics, and neither do I.  When can I find the time to sleep?

 

The highlight of the past week was a visit by Trade Minister Lord Green and Cabinet Office Minister Baroness Warsi.  We met Prime Minister Gilani, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh in Islamabad.  Baroness Warsi visited the Elections Commission to hear about the challenges of updating voter lists and boundaries.  Lord Green talked to British businesses investing here.  From his perspective, he told foreign journalists, he saw real opportunities to do business and risks no greater than in other emerging markets.  

 

I was struck by the depth of UK’s relationship with Pakistan and also some similarities.  In the back of the car with Baroness Warsi, I caught up on British politics.  We, too, have an economy to turn round and important elections coming up (local, including London’s Mayor).

 

I have learnt so much in six weeks, and I have met so many interesting people.  I’m discovering Pakistani novels, and buying beautiful Pakistani pottery and textiles to decorate my house.  But I haven’t even left Islamabad yet, so I’m looking forward to visiting Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar in the next month.  People assure me that it takes a lifetime to understand the intricacies of Pakistani politics, but that doesn’t stop me having views already.  Maybe that’s the reason I feel at home here

Syndicated from: Adam Thomson

“I want to learn about journalism,” he told Iqbal Khattak, a representative of the Paris-based RSF, who spoke with Aatif to confirm his participation in the training workshop.

Hours later, Aatif’s world crumbled as two hooded gunmen opened fire while he was offering evening prayer at a mosque near his house in the Shabqadar subdivision of the Charsadda district, north of Peshawar. [Read more]

Syndicated from: Journeys to democracy

Syndicated from: Borderline Green

 In this background, the reference really is a request to determine whether or not the national assembly resolution had any merit or whether it was a contempt of court. The reference also establishes the principle that the judgment of the Supreme Court has greater meaning and weight than a resolution of the national assembly. In order to understand the case it is important to know the background.

Here are some clippings from Nation and Express newspapers and Wikipedia:
Nawab Muhammad Ahmed Khan, Kasuri’s father, was killed in 1974. Kasuri himself was the complainant for the murder case registered against Bhutto, who was eventually hanged in 1979. In April this year, 32 years after Bhutto’s death, President Asif Zardari filed a reference under Article 186 of the Constitution to the Supreme Court to reopen the murder trial.
Bhutto was convicted in a murder case and sentenced to death by the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 1979 during the dictatorship of the then army chief General Ziaul Haq. He was executed on April 4, 1979 by then military dictatorship.

A five-member bench of the LHC, headed by Maulvi Mushtaq Ahmad, had held the Bhutto trial for five months and awarded death sentence to him on March 18, 1978. The Bhutto family had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. A seven-member bench upheld his death sentence in its February 6, 1979, verdict with a bare 4-to-3 majority. His review petition was also dismissed on March 24, 1979. Bhutto was hanged at the Central Jail, Rawalpindi, on April 4, 1979.

Sheikh Anwarul Haq is a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan [September 23, 1977 - March 25, 1981]. He is often considered ‘ill-famed’ for giving legitimacy to General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq’s martial law and for upholding the decision of the Lahore High Court which sentenced Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to death for the authorization of the murder of a political opponent. Four Supreme Court judges headed by Chief Justice Anwarul Haq upheld the murder conviction of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. On 25 March 1981, S. Anwarul Haq became the first Justice and only Chief Justice to refuse taking the oath under the military imposed PCO and resigned on conscientious grounds.

Prime Minister Bhutto began facing considerable criticism and increasing unpopularity as his term progressed, the democratic socialists alliance who had previously allied with Bhutto began to diminish as time progresses. Initially targeting leader of the opposition Vali Khan and his opposition National Awami Party (NAP), also a socialist party. Despite the ideological similarity of the two parties, the clash of egos both inside and outside the National Assembly became increasingly fierce, starting with the Federal government’s decision to oust the NAP provincial government in Balochistan Province for alleged secessionist activities and culminating in the banning of the party and arrest of much of its leadership after the death of a close lieutenant of Bhutto’s, Hayat Sherpao, in a bomb blast in the frontier town of Peshawar.

Dissidence also increased within the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and the murder of a leading dissident Ahmed Raza Kasuri‘s father led to public outrage and intra-party hostility as Bhutto was accused of masterminding the crime. Powerful PPP leaders such as Ghulam Mustafa Khar openly condemned Bhutto and called for protests against his regime. The political crisis in the NWFP (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and Balochistan intensified as civil liberties remained suspended, and an estimated 100,000 troops deployed there were accused of abusing human rights and killing large numbers of civilians.

On January 8, 1977 a large number of opposition political parties grouped to form the Pakistan National Alliance (PNA). Bhutto called fresh elections, and PNA participated fully in those elections. They managed to contest the elections jointly even though there were grave splits on opinions and views within the party. The PNA faced defeat but did not accept the results, alleging that the election was rigged. They proceeded to boycott the provincial elections. Despite this, there was a high voter turnout in the national elections; however, as provincial elections were held amidst low voter turnout and an opposition boycott, the PNA declared the newly-elected Bhutto government as illegitimate.

All the opposition leaders called for the overthrow of Bhutto’s regime. Political and civil disorder intensified, which led to more unrest. Bhutto imposed martial law in major cities including Karachi, Lahore and Hyderabad. However, Mr. Bhutto accepted that there were major irregularities in the election in a number of constituencies and a compromise agreement between Bhutto and opposition to hold fresh election in some constituencies was ultimately reported. This compromise theory was however probably a later day addition as a major PPP armed rally was in the offing.

Zia planned a the Coup d’état carefully as he knew Bhutto had integral intelligence in the Pakistan Armed Forces, and many officers, including Chief of Air Staff General Zulfiqar Ali Khan and Major-General Tajammul Hussain Malik, GOC of 23rd Mountain Division, Major-General Naseerullah Babar, DG of Directorate-General for the Military Intelligence (DGMO) and Vice-Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan, were loyal to Bhutto.

To remove this intelligence, Zia secretly contracted with the active duty British SAS army officers to maintain a staff course for the Army personnel while Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Mohammad Shariff quietly removed naval personnel loyal to Bhutto and his government from the Navy’s active duty. Zia ordered Bhutto’s loyal officers to attend a staff and command course and none of the officers were allowed to leave the course until the midnight. Meanwhile, Zia with his close officers, including Admiral Mohammad Shariff, then-Chaiman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, arranged the coup in the evening. On July 5, 1977, before the announcement of any agreement, Bhutto and members of his cabinet were arrested by troops of Military Police under the order of Zia by the evening.

Bhutto’s last personal appearance and utterances in the supreme court were not merely a long defence of his conduct he also made some matters clear. He mentioned the words of “heir” for his son “Mir Murtaza Bhutto”. He made some remark which indicated that he has views similar to a Sunni, though he was Shia albeit a non-practicing one. He also effectively cast doubt on the reliability of star witnesses against him i.e. Masood Mahmood who was a UK-trained lawyer and not merely a police officer and FSF chief. He mentioned repeatedly Lahori Ahmedi connection of Masood Mahmood in his testimony. He repeatedly brought the subject of his maltreatment in the death cell. Bhutto made it abundantly clear, even though indirectly that he wanted either freedom or death, not something in between, and appreciated Khar and his lawyer Yahya Bakhtiar.

During Bhutto’s five years in Pakistan’s helm, Bhutto had retained an emotional hold on the poor masses who had voted him overwhelmingly in 1970s general elections. At the same time, however, Bhutto had many enemies. The [socialist economics] and nationalization of major private industries during his first two years on office had badly upsets the Business circles… An ill-considered decision to take over the wheat-milling, rice-husking, sugar mills, and cotton-ginning, industries in July of 1976 had angered the small business owners and traders. Both leftists— socialists and communists, intellectuals, students, and trade unionists— felt betrayed by Bhutto’s shift to centre-right wing conservative economics policies and by his growing collaboration with powerful feudal lords, Pakistan’s traditional power brokers. After 1976, Bhutto’s aggressive authoritarian personal style and often high-handed way of dealing with political rivals, dissidents, and opponents had also alienated many….

Syndicated from: Ideas for a New Millennium

When I was in the 8th grade there was an essay in our english book about Valentina Tereshkova the first woman in space and it detailed all of her hard and rigorous training which ranged from extreme pressure, noise to severe vibrations. Zero gravity training and also extreme heat and cold conditions.

For selecting astronauts NASA prefers Air force pilots but if Pakistan had a space program then there wouldn’t be a shortage of entrants as well cause if you have ever traveled in a local van or a bus then you know the driver’s seat is also referred to as a Pilot-Seat.

On the voyage of discovery (which can be from your office to your home) that bus driver is like a the Captain of the space shuttle and the screaming with terror passengers, his astronauts in training, and he takes them through the winding roads with expert maneuvers which put NASA space station docking to shame.  Like all local busses Pakistani busses also have a conductor and he space walks across the floating trainee astronauts trying to cram as much people as physically possible.

We are even ready for long term space travel. For it envolves Big Boss style cramming of people in a tight place for a long time and for that purpose we have our Railway system. Dont believe me try going to Karachi to Peshawar and you’ll know what I mean. Its a journey of epic proportions cause if the train manages to start moving there are countless reasons for it to stop moving not to the mention it takes great emotional stability to handle the vomiting children, the ultra smelling bathrooms which are open air so bio friendly and the Niswar puking Khan sahib, all are there to spice up the journey and add to the over all trainee experience. A friend of mine used to say the unique thing about traveling in Pakistan is that the stench changes type every two feet.

Syndicated from: Uncomfortably Numb