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| India-Pakistan |
| 7 more militant outfits likely to be banned |
| 2003-11-26 |
| Seven more militant organisations are likely to be banned after Eidul Fitr and âa number of othersâ put on a watch list, official sources told Daily Times here on Tuesday. âHarkatul Jihad Al Islami (HJI), Jamiatul Mujahideen Al Aalmi (JMA) and Tehrikul Mujahideen Pakistan (TMP) may face the ban for militant activities, while Ahl-e-Hadith Youth Force (AYF), Tehrik Difa-e-Sahaba, Jamiat Ishaat Touhed-wal-Sunnah, Almi Tanzeem-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat (ATAS) may be banned on account of their sectarian activitiesâ, sources said. Sources said HJI Ameer Qari Saifullah Akhtar was reportedly an adviser to Taliban chief Mulla Omar. They said Akhtar was also involved in a 1995 coup attempt by senior army officers, Brig Mustansar Billa and Maj Gen Zaheerul Islam Abbasi. Harkat ul Jihad Islami is actually the biggest or second biggest Deobandi Jihadi outfit in Pakistan. They are virtually unknown compared to the Jaish or Lashkar, but despite the low profile, they were extremely close to the Taliban, because Mullah Omar fought in the same faction as the HuJIâs leaders, back in the anti-Soviet Jihad. Its Jihadis operate in Burma, Chechnya, Tajikistan and elsewhere; and is part of Osamaâs International Islamic Front. AYF is the youth wing of the Markazi Jamait-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, while ATAS had attempted to besiege the Armyâs General Headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2000 to press for the enforcement of Sharia law. Iâm pretty sure that ATAS tried to press for Sharia law back before Musharaf came to power in the military coup, which would be in 1999. I remember the government of the day trying to figure out what to do about this guy threatening to storm the capital, and in the end the government had to send envoys to his house to beg him not too. The organizations likely to be put on the watch list are Al Badr Mujahideen, Tehrik Tahaffuz-e-Namoos-e-Sahaba, Jamiat Ghurba-e-Ahl-e-Hadith, Al Mohajeroon, Al Akhtar Trust and Al Rasheed Trust. Al Akhtar Trust and Al Rasheed Trust have been declared sponsors of terrorism in some countries. Al Badr is reportedly involved in jihad in Held Kashmir. Jamiat Ghurba-e-Ahl-e-Hadith runs the Karachi seminary Jamia Abu Baker, from where Indonesian and Malaysian students were arrested last month |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |