In the Spotlight: Sipah-I-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP)

The Sipah-I-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) – Army of the Friends of the Prophet – is a Sunni sectarian group responsible for carrying out terrorist activities against Shias in Pakistan. It has also operated as a political party, and its leaders have won elections to Pakistan’s National Assembly. The SSP is the country’s most powerful sectarian militant organization, and was responsible for attacks on Shia worshippers in May 2004, in which at least 50 people were killed. The organization was one of five proscribed by President Pervez Musharraf on Jan. 12, 2002. Since then, the SSP had changed its name to Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan, but was banned again in September 2003.

In Brief
• Established: c. 1985

• Founders: Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi, Maulana Eesar-ul-Haq Qasmi, Maulana Azam Tariq

• Area of Operation: Jhang, Karachi, Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Multan, Muzaffargarh

• Goal: To make Pakistan a Sunni state, protect Shariat, restore the Khilafat, and declare Shias non-Muslims

• Strength: 500 offices in Punjab; 100,000 registered workers, 17 branches in foreign countries

• Affiliated Groups: LeJ, HuM, JeM, JeI, JuI, JUP

The SSP was established in September 1985 by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi, Maulana Eesar-ul-Haq Qasmi, and Maulana Azam Tariq. Initially called the Anjuman Sipah-I-Sahaba, the group was formed as a response to rising Shia militancy and sectarian violence in Pakistani Punjab. The Punjab is the backbone of Pakistan’s agricultural industry, and most of the landlords there are Shias. Historically, these feudal leaders dominated both society as well as politics in the region, even though the majority of Punjabis belong to the Sunni sect.

In the 1970s, the Punjab developed rapidly into an urban society, and with it came the rise of shopkeepers, traders and businessmen. This new merchant middle-class composed largely of Sunnis and began to challenge the traditional hold of Shia landlords, especially in farming cities such as Jhang in Central Punjab. A Shiite extremist group, Tehrik-e-Jaferia-Pakistan (TJP) – Movement of Followers of Jaferia – was founded in Jhang in 1979. Its aim was to protect the rights of the Shiite community in Pakistan, and its creation coincided with the enforcement of controversial Islamic laws by the then military ruler of Pakistan, Gen. Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq. The Islamic revolution in predominantly Shia Iran around the same time gave an added boost to the organization. Subsequently, the SSP also arose in Jhang, where it was formed to counter fears of growing Shia militancy in the region.

The SSP believes that Shias possess too much power and influence in Pakistan, and want the country to be declared a Sunni state. It aims to restore the Khilafat (Caliphate) system, while protecting Sunnis and their Shariat (Islamic laws). SSP members declare that Shias are non-Muslims and must be violently converted or suppressed – a notion that received Zia’s unbounded support in the late 1980s. The southern city of Karachi and towns in southern and western Punjab such as Sargodha, Bahawalpur, Jhang, Multan and Muzaffargarh are SSP strongholds. The organization boasts 500 offices and branches in all 34 districts of Punjab. It also has approximately 100,000 registered workers in Pakistan and 17 branches in foreign countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Canada and the United Kingdom.

SSP members typically carry out their operations in two ways. The first involves targeted killings of prominent Shias, especially activists of opposing organizations. The second involves the slaying of ordinary Shias, mostly through firing on worshippers in mosques. On occasion, Iranians in Pakistan are also targeted as the SSP believes that their opponents are actively supported by Iran’s government. In the early 1990s, the group decided to become politically active, and contested elections as a standing party in 1992. Maulana Azim Tariq became a minister in the coalition government, and was again elected in 2002.

Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, one of the founders of SSP, was assassinated on Feb. 23, 1990 by Shia terrorists. He had lost elections for the National Assembly in 1990, but was extremely popular in Jhang. After his death, Maulana Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi took over as leader but was killed in a bomb explosion on Jan.19, 1997. He was succeeded by Maulana Azim Tariq, an SSP chief and a member of the National Assembly. Tariq was assassinated by three unidentified gunmen in Islamabad on Oct.6, 2003. He had been a frequent visitor to Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rule, and was an ardent supporter of banning music, television and cinema in all of Pakistan. In December 1999, he had pledged to send 500,000 jihadis to Indian-occupied Kashmir to carry out terrorist actions. Current SSP leaders include Qazi Muhammad Ahmed Rashidi, Mohammad Yousuf Mujahid, Tariq Madni, Muhammad Tayyab Qasim and Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi.

Protesting against what they termed as the moderate nature of the organization, the more radical and extremist elements of the SSP formed the Lashkar-I-Jhangvi (LIJ) in 1996. Unlike the LIJ, the SSP has always retained an explicit political profile, often denying its terrorist activities, contesting elections and sitting as part of the Punjab’s coalition government. The LIJ is widely considered to be the armed wing of the Sipah-e-Sahaba, while many SSP operatives receive arms training from the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and the erstwhile Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The SSP is also reported to have close links to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Pakistan-based terrorist organization active in Jammu and Kashmir. The former group also draws support, inspiration and assistance from various political parties in Pakistan, primarily the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and the Jamaat-Ulema-e-Islam (JuI), and reportedly receives significant funding from various sources, including charity and donations from Sunni extremist groups in Saudi Arabia. Other sources of financial assistance include donations through local Sunni organizations and trusts, madrassas (Islamic seminaries), study circles, and contributions by political groups. Most of the foreign-funded Sunni madrassas in Pakistan are reportedly controlled by the SSP. The organization has also been linked to Ramzi Ahmed Yousuf, captured by the American authorities in February 1995, and later convicted of the February 1993 New York World Trade Center bombing.

On Jan.16, 2001, the SSP and TJP assured the Punjab government of cooperation in the elimination of terrorism from the region. Similarly, on Feb. 3, 2001, the SSP and another Shia group, the Sipah-I-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP), announced a willingness to overcome differences. However, the SSP continues to actively oppose the U.S.-Pakistan alliance in the so-called ‘War on Terrorism,’ and, together with the JeI, the JuI, and the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e Pakistan (JUP), formed the Afghan Jihad Council. The council has declared jihad against the United States and its allies and is widely suspected of being responsible for two bomb explosions at the Haidery Mosque and the Imambargah Ali Raza, both in Karachi. These terrorist acts invited retribution from opposing Shia factions resulting in a bloody May in the region.

Sources:

Ahmed, Feroz, “Pakistan: Ethnic Fragmentation or National Integration?” Pakistan Development Review, 35(4), Winter 1996, pp. 631-45

Kumar, Satish, “Militant Islam: The Nemesis of Pakistan,” Aakrosh, 3(6), January 2000, pp. 17-38

Mehrotra, O.N., “Madarassa in Pakistan: The Chief Promoter of Islamic Militancy and Terrorism,” Strategic Analysis, 23(11), February 2000, pp. 1879-94

“Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Terrorist Group of Pakistan,” South Asia Terrorism Portal, June 21, 2004, http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/ssp.htm

“Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet,” International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, April 27 2002, http://www.ict.org.il/inter_ter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=57#activity

“Pakistan’s Militant Islamic Groups,” British Broadcasting Corporation, Oct. 7 2003,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3170970.stm

Author(s): Ali Chaudhry
http://www.cdi.org/program/document.cfm?documentid=2308&programID=39&from_page=../friendlyversion/printversion.cfm

Sipah-e-Sahaba: Fomenting Sectarian Violence in Pakistan
Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 3 Issue: 2May 5, 2005 03:55 PM Age: 5 yrs
By: Animesh Roul
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (Corp of the Prophet’s Companions), a militant Islamist organization and the largest sectarian outfit in the country, was outlawed by President Pervez Musharraf on January 12, 2002 for its alleged involvement in terrorist related activities. More than 1,500 of its members were arrested at that time. Immediately after the ban, then-chief Maulana Azam Tariq renamed the organization Milat-e-Islamia Pakistan (MIP), the group’s third incarnation. Previously known as Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba, the (Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan) SSP belongs to the Deobandi School of thought and its prime targets are the Shi’a community and Iranian interests in Pakistan.

The gruesome killings of 40 people in twin bomb blasts in Multan on October 7, 2004, highlight the depth of the sectarian conflict that plagues Pakistan. The incident occurred when hundreds of people had gathered to mark the first anniversary of the killing of Sipah-e-Sahaba chief Maulana Azam Tariq outside Islamabad. The attack came almost a week after a lethal suicide attack inside a crowded Shi’a mosque in the city of Sialkot that killed at least 30 people with as many injured. While the SSP chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhiyanvi, speaking to the media at Nishtar Hospital in Multan, blamed Shi’a radicals for the blast, police sources specifically pointed towards the militant Shi’a organization Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) as the prime suspect. [1] SMP is an off-shoot of Tehrik-Nifaz-e-Fiqh-e-Jafaria (TNFJ – Movement for the Implementation of Jafaria Religious Law), the main Shi’a politico-religious party. Even as security forces claimed to have arrested one suspected mastermind of the blast, Amjad Shah of SMP in Toba Tek Singh, another source claimed that a different Shia outfit, Pasban-i-Islam (also affiliated to the TNFJ) was responsible for the Multan bomb blast. [2]

SSP was formed on September 6, 1985 in the Punjabi city of Jhang with the core mission of targeting Shi’as, whom the group believes are non-Muslims. Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Ziaur Rahman Farooqi, Maulana Eesar-ul-Haq Qasmi and Maulana Azam Tariq were the original founders of the SSP. The outfit had also operated as a political party, regularly contesting elections in the Punjab province. Its slain chief, Azam Tariq, was elected to parliament on no less than four occasions.

A decade after its inception, the SSP had become one of the largest religious parties in Pakistan. Although many analysts contend that the SSP emerged as a reaction to the Iranian revolution and increasing Shi’a influence in Pakistan, there are other schools of thought, according to whom the SSP phenomenon emerged in Jhang as a reaction to the socio-economic repression of the Sunni populace by Shi’a feudal lords. Clearly the impact of the Iranian revolution on Pakistan’s social fabric has been considerable, not least because of Iran’s drive to establish regional hegemony and growing Sunni Islamist resistance to it. In Pakistan, Iranian sponsorship of Shi’a organizations was principally countered by Saudi Arabia, which is believed to have consistently bankrolled the SSP. Nonetheless it would be reductive to attribute the emergence of the SSP and its brand of extreme Sunni supremacy to the Iranian revolution alone.

Since its inception the SSP has relied on a core constituency of Sunni peasantry who felt exploited by Shi’a landlords and aristocrats, often with large land and property holdings. The SSP is also a byproduct of the Zia ul-Haq regime, which tried to create an Islamist counter to pro-democracy forces in the country. [3] While advocating a Sunni state in which all other sects would be declared non-Muslim minorities, the SSP has been singularly focused on an extreme anti-Shi’a campaign; for instance lobbying to have the Shi’as declared non-Muslims and calling for a ban on “Muharram” (commemorative mourning ceremony for Shi’as) processions.

Although the Shi’a and Sunni conflict in Pakistan predates the emergence of SSP, there has been a major escalation in sectarian violence since the anti-Shi’a riots in Lahore of 1986. At least two subsequent events changed the dynamics of sectarian violence: the murder of TNFJ leader Arif Hussain in 1988 and the February 1990 assassination of Maulana Haq Nawaj Jangvi, the most influential founder of SSP. Sectarian violence reached its peak in 1997; out of 195 killed in that year, 118 were Shi’a and 77 Sunni. The SSP along with several other Sunni and Shi’a organizations were suspected of being at the forefront of this violence. According to some sources, the first incident of sectarian violence took place on March 23, 1987 when Ahl-e-Hadith leaders Allama Ehsan Elahi Zaheer and Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Yazdani were killed with six others at a meeting near the Minar-i-Pakistan. [4] The SSP’s terrorist campaign has two main features: targeted killings of prominent Shi’a figures and indiscriminate attacks on crowded mosques. Some of the major cases of sectarian violence spearheaded by the SSP in 2004 are worth documentation:

October 7: At least 38 people were killed and more than 100 injured in bomb blasts in Multan.

September 21: Suspected SSP members gunned down at least three members of a Shi’a family in a sectarian attack in Dera Ismail Khan.

March 2: More than 45 people killed and over 100 wounded in an attack on Shi’a Muslims in Quetta.

SSP has also inflicted serious violence on Iranian interests in Pakistan. In December 1990, it assassinated Sadegh Ganji, a well-known Iranian diplomat and head of Iran’s cultural center in Lahore. The killing of Ganji was apparently in retaliation for the assassination of Maulana Jhangvi in February 1990, likely carried out by Iranian intelligence. In January 1997 the SSP armed wing burnt down Iran’s cultural center in Lahore and in the same month assassinated Mohammad Ali Rahimi, Iran’s cultural attaché in Multan. In September 1997, SSP operatives shot dead five Iranian air force cadets in Rwalpindi. [5]

According to reliable sources, SSP maintains both its headquarters in the two largest Deobandi Madrasas of Punjab – Jamiat-ul-Uloom Eidgah in Bahawalnagar city, and Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband Faqirwali in the Fort Abbas subdivision. However, some sources have claimed that all organizational controls are exercised from regional headquarters located in Jamia Faruqiya, Jia Moosa, Shadara and Lahore and the international units are controlled by Madrasa Mahmoodiya in Jhang. [6]

The tentacles of the organization are widespread, as SSP has paid considerable attention to district level units. According to one estimate, the organization boasted 74 district-level and 225 tehsil (micro-level unit of administration) units before the 2002 proscription. [7] Although rooted in the countryside the SSP relies on urban Sunni businessmen for funding. Moreover the organization has tried to reach a more sophisticated audience through its official monthly organ, Khilifat-i-Rashida (The Rightly Guided Caliphate), published in Faisalabad.

It is widely believed that the SSP has received considerable financial and logistical assistance from Saudi intelligence. The Pakistani authorities are well aware of these connections but turn a blind eye to them, not least because the Pakistani state maintains historical ties with the House of Saud. [8] A report in the mid 1990’s disclosed that the Saudi government had consistently backed the Deobandi school of thought in Pakistan (which has many similarities to the Wahhabi version of Islam), especially after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. The report also claimed that the United States and some other western countries supported the SSP to counter the growing Shi’a and Iranian influence in the region. [9]

The SSP exercises considerable influence on various political parties, in particular the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and the Jamaat-Ulema-e-Islam (JuI), which tried to negotiate Osama bin Laden’s extradition to Pakistan to stand trial for the 9/11 attacks. Moreover the SSP is believed to have strong operational ties with other Deobandi/Wahhabi organizations in Pakistan and also with some international outfits.

In 1996 there was an apparent split in the ranks of the SSP, leading to the emergence of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ – “Jhangvi’s Army”). [10] The LeJ is led by Riaz Basra (former senior cadre of the SSP), and is widely believed to be the armed wing of the SSP. The LeJ was also outlawed by President Musharraf on August 14, 2001. Despite the manufactured split, the SSP retained its half-disguised moderate political profile and denied engaging in terrorist activities.

Besides the LeJ, the SSP has forged other manufactured – or at least controlled – splinter groups. After Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi’s assassination, at least five splinter groups (excluding the LeJ) emerged from the ranks of the SSP. They were Jhangvi Tigers, Al Haq Tigers, Tanzeem ul-Haq, Al Farooq and Al Badr Foundation. Currently the SSP has 31 vital operational networks spread across Pakistan. After the proscription, it has shifted its offices to mosques and madrasas in different cities. The networks in Multan, Jhang, Quetta, Hyderabad and Peshawar have been under Mualana Abdul Ghafoor, Rana Ayub, Hafiz Qasim Siddique, Maulana Farooq Azad and Maulana Darwesh respectively. Although rooted in the Punjab, the SSP is now a truly national and increasingly international phenomenon. The organization has tens of thousands of active supporters and according to reliable sources boasts up to 6,000 trained and professional cadres; many of whom are actively involved in sectarian violence. With some 17 branches in foreign countries including Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Canada and the United Kingdom, the SSP is the largest and most pervasive Sunni supremacist organization in the world.

Apart from its armed wing, the SSP has strong connections with the Kashmir-focused Jihadi outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) led by Maulana Masood Azhar. In October 2000, the JeM chief reportedly said “now we go hand-in-hand, and Sipah-e-Sahaba stands shoulder to shoulder with Jaish-e-Muhammad in Jihad.” Despite these alliances the SSP does not play a significant role in the Kashmiri insurgency.

However, SSP militants were known to have undergone military training in Afghanistan while fighting alongside the Taliban. Most recently on December 20, 2004 Lahore Police arrested suspected SSP cadre Malik Tahseen (alias Abdul Jabbar Alvi) for his involvement in securing Afghan bases and connections for the organization. Tahseen was detained alongside five associates of Libyan al-Qaeda operative Abu Al-Faraj, wanted for masterminding two assassination attempts on President Musharraf. However, there does not seem to be any serious connections between the SSP and al-Qaeda, despite allegations that both the SSP and the LeJ lent moral support to Osama Bin Laden’s International Islamic Front. While al-Qaeda has been successful at co-opting other Pakistani sectarian outfits, it has had less luck with the SSP, which has consistently identified Shi’as and Iran as its primary – and seemingly exclusive – enemies.

Despite its ban, the SSP carries on as normal and – for the foreseeable future at least – is likely to grow in influence and prestige. A primary and obvious difficulty is that proscribed groups such as SSP and JeM can circumvent the proscription by changing their names and operating through manufactured splinter groups. Addressing the serious challenges posed by the SSP is a Herculean task, not least because sectarian divisions are very strong in Pakistan. It is doubtful whether Musharraf’s administration has either the will or the capability to take on this powerful organization and its vocal and influential domestic and international audience.

Animesh Roul is a Research Coordinator at the “Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict” (SSPC) in New Delhi, where he specializes in terrorism and security issues. He is also a correspondent for ISN.

Notes:

1. Sipah Muhammad Pakistan was formed in 1993 on the basis of instructions issued by TNFJ President Ghulam Reza Naqvi. It was banned on August 14, 2001 along with the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).

2. “Pasban-i-Islam behind Multan blast”, The News, October 22, 2004.

3. After assuming power, Zia ul-Haq encouraged the formation of the Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM) in Karachi and Hyderabad and Anjuman Sipah Sahabah in Punjab in order to scuttle the influence of the People’s Party and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was a Shi’a.

4. Dawn, September 11, 1997.

5. For more information on these killings, refer to Hassan Abbas, Pakistan’s Drift Into Extremism: Allah, The Army, And America’s War On Terror, M.E. Sharpe, 2004.

6. Mohammad Amir Rana, Gateway to Terrorism, New Millennium Publication,

London, 2003, p.182.

7. Ibid.

8. The ideological and financial links between the two has been noted in various sources. See, for example, Fayaz Ahmad, “Sipah e Sahaba or Sipah e Yazeed?”, Shia News, 21 October 2003. Also see, the URL: http://www.hazara.net/taliban/protectors/protectors.html

9. The information was published in the daily Nation, 20 January 1995 quoting a confidential report of the Home Department of Punjab. Rehman Faiz quoted in Qalandar: Islam and Interfaith Relations in South Asia, April 2004. http://www.islaminterfaith.org

10. LeJ is named after the SSP leader Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi who was allegedly assassinated by the Iranian intelligence service in February 1990. After the assassination some members allegedly deserted the SSP, accusing it of deviating from the ideals of Jhangvi. But the split was not serious and the LeJ merely constitutes the armed wing of the SSP. The SSP and LeJ have allegedly received financial and other assistance from the intelligence agencies of Saudi Arabia and the former Iraqi regime as reward for targeting Iranian officials and interests. Conversely the SMP was bankrolled by Iranian intelligence for countering the LeJ.

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=323

Incidents involving Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
2010

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.

2009

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.

2008

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.

2007

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.

2006

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.

2005

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.

2004

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.

2003

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.

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.
2001

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.
2000

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.

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/terroristoutfits/SSP_tl.htm

’سترہ کلعدم تنظیمیں متحرک‘

شہزاد ملک
بی بی سی اردو ڈاٹ کام، اسلام آباد
آخری وقت اشاعت: منگل 22 جون 2010 , 15:37 GMT 20:37 PST
http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2010/06/100622_militant_organisation_intelligence_report.shtml
غازی فورس سنہ دوہزار سات میں لال مسجد آپریشن کے بعد منظر عام پر آئی تھی

پاکستان کے خفیہ اداروں کا کہنا ہے کہ پنجاب میں سترہ شدت پسند اور کالعدم تنظیمیں مختلف ناموں سے مذہبی تقریبات یا اسناد کی تقسیم کی تقریبات اور دیگر رفاع عامہ کے نام پر تقریبات منعقد کرواکر لوگوں سے پیسے اکھٹے کر رہی ہیں۔

وِزارت داخلہ کو بھیجی جانے والی اس رپورٹ میں کہا گیا ہے کہ یہ تنظیمیں پنجاب کے جن شہروں اور قصبوں میں موجود ہیں اُن میں راولپنڈی، چکوال، پنڈ دادن خان، منڈی بہاالدین، اٹک، کھاریاں، فیصل آباد اور گوجرانوالہ کے علاقے شامل ہیں۔

وِزارت داخلہ کے ذرائع نے بی بی سی کو بتایا کہ اس رپورٹ میں کہا گیا ہے کہ ان سترہ تنظیموں میں سے سب سے زیادہ متحرک غازی فورس نامی تنظیم ہے جو مختلف علاقوں میں اپنی سرگرمیاں بڑی تیزی سے جاری رکھے ہوئے ہے۔ مذکورہ تنظیم سنہ دوہزار سات میں لال مسجد آپریشن کے بعد منظر عام پر آئی تھی۔

ذرائع کے مطابق رپورٹ میں کہا گیا ہے کہ اس تنظیم کی ہمدردیاں دوسری کالعدم تنظیم تحریک طالبان پاکستان کے ساتھ ہیں اور شدت پسندی کے متعدد واقعات میں ان دونوں تنظیموں کے کارکن ملوث ہیں۔

رپورٹ کے مطابق جنوبی وزیرستان اور دیگر قبائلی علاقوں میں شدت پسندوں کے خلاف آپریشن کی وجہ سے وہاں سے بڑی تعداد میں شدت پسندوں نے پنجاب کے بڑے شہروں سمیت دیگر بندوسبتی علاقوں میں پناہ لے لی ہے۔

رپورٹ میں کہا گیا ہے کہ شدت پسندوں اور کالعدم تنظیموں سے تعلق رکھنے والے افراد موجودہ صورت حال کو دیکھتے ہوئے بندوسبتی علاقوں میں پناہ لینے کے بعد وہاں پر اپنی کارروائیاں جاری رکھے ہوئے ہیں۔

ذرائع کا کہنا ہے کہ اس رپورٹ میں کہا گیا ہے کہ سترہ شدت پسند اور کالعدم تنظیمیں مختلف ناموں سے مذہبی تقریبات یا اسناد کی تقسیم کی تقریبات اور دیگر رفاع عامہ کے نام پر تقریبات منعقد کرواکر لوگوں سے پیسے اکھٹے کر رہی ہیں۔

وِزارت داخلہ کے ذرائع کا کہنا ہے کہ ان تنظیموں کے اراکین صوبہ سندھ کے مختلف علاقوں میں بھی اپنا نیٹ ورک قائم کرنے کے لیے کام کر رہے ہیں۔

رپورٹ میں پولیس کے خفیہ ادارے سپیشل برانچ کے اہلکاروں کو ان شدت پسندوں کی کارروائیوں پر نظر رکھنے کے لیے جدید سازوسامان کی فراہمی کا بھی ذکر کیا گیا ہے تاکہ اُن کی کارکردگی کو مزید موثر بنایا جاسکے۔

وِزارت داخلہ کے ذرائع کا کہنا ہے کہ ان تنظیموں کے اہلکار صوبہ سندھ کے مختلف علاقوں میں بھی اپنا نیٹ ورک قائم کرنے کے لیے کام کر رہے ہیں۔
اس رپورٹ کی روشنی میں وزارت داخلہ نے اسلام آباد سمیت چاروں صوبوں کے متعلقہ حکام کو کالعدم تنظیموں کے اہلکاروں کی کڑی نگرانی کرنے کی ہدایت کی ہے۔

واضح رہے کہ پنجاب حکومت نے شدت پسندی کے خلاف مؤثر کارروائی کے لیے صوبے میں امن وامان قائم رکھنے کے لیے سنہ دوہزار دس اور گیارہ کے مالی سال کے لیے انچاس ارب روپے رکھے ہیں جن میں پولیس اہلکاروں کی تنخواہوں کے علاوہ قانون نافذ کرنے والے اداروں کے اہلکاروں کے لیے جدید سازوسامان کی خریداری بھی شامل ہے۔

سندھ حکومت نے بھی شدت پسندی کے خلاف جنگ اور صوبے میں امن وامان قائم رکھنے کے لیے یکم جولائی سے شروع ہونے والے نئے مالیاتی بجٹ میں تیس ارب سے زائد کی رقم مختص کی ہے

Love costs. Think of what Christ paid when he embraced us. Think of the pain the Son of Man endured in loving a lost and wayward humanity. Love is never without pain. When you sign on to a relationship, you sign on to being hurt.

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Shia Community is being Massacred in Pakistan and read these Shia Maulvis who have succeeded to Find US/Jewish Conspiracy in Indian Court of Allahabad [UP, India]‘s decision on Barai Mosque???? Thursday, September 30, 2010, Shawwal 20, 1431 A.H http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/sep2010-daily/30-09-2010/u47650.htm