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| India-Pakistan |
| 'Criminals hijacked TNSM's Shariah drive in Malakand' |
| 2007-07-15 |
| A commander of the outlawed Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi (TNSM) has revealed that the group’s goal, the enforcement of Shariah in Malakand, failed because “criminals” hijacked the movement for their own goals. Abdul Mateen Jan spent several years as a commander of the outlawed group in the 1990s. He says a Peshawar High Court ruling abolishing Provincially Administered Tribal Areas Regulations in early 1994 laid the foundation for the movement when Dir district Jamaat-e-Islami leader Maulana Sufi Muhammad launched TNSM for the enforcement of Islamic laws in absence of any other system. He said the inclusion of “criminals” into the movement spoiled the struggle for Shariah. “Kidnappers, car-snatchers and mercenaries surrounded Sufi Muhammad, changing him dramatically,” Jan, in his 50s, told Daily Times. The government outlawed the TNSM after its leader Sufi Muhammad mobilised thousands of volunteers to cross into Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance days after 9/11. Maulana Sufi Muhammad is presently serving a lengthy prison term in Dera Ismail Khan after he was arrested upon his return from Afghanistan. More recently, alleged Islamic militants have disturbed Swat and the arrival of an army brigade has increased the local population’s fears about a likely military operation. “I joined the movement just to play a role in enforcement of Shariah,” Jan said. Replying to a question about how criminals managed to join the movement, the former commander who hid in Afghanistan when government forces launched an operation against the TNSM, said, “No one noticed anything amiss till they were controlling our leader. Sufi Muhammad was good in the beginning as he used to consult all of us before taking any decision. But later, our leader seemed a different man.” He said the maulana stopped taking advice from the consultative body and started passing orders like a “military dictator”. He said the Taliban were suffering from a similar problem in Waziristan and the joining of “criminals” was tarnishing its image. Another former TNSM leader, Muzaffar Syed, who is a lawyer, said anti-Pakistan Afghan commander Ahmed Shah Masood offered his aid to the exiled TNSM members. “Ahmed Shah Masood’s emissaries met the TNSM commanders and fighters when we took refuge in Kunar province.” He was unable to explain what help Masood’s emissaries offered. Syed, after his experiences with the TNSM, now regards clerics with a critical eye. “For a mullah, every good Muslim looks an infidel,” he opined, and said the movement did not enjoy popular mass support as it was conceived. |
| Posted by:Fred |