| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Militant chief has eye on parliament seat |
| 2008-02-16 |
| The leader of a banned militant group is standing in the general elections, and says he will fight for the reinstatement of his group if he wins a seat in parliament. Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, head of the outlawed Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan, has a good chance of winning a seat on Monday in Jhang that has been a group stronghold for years. “This is our seat and we’ll win it. No one can snatch this seat from us,” the bearded cleric told Reuters in an interview at a supporter’s house in Jhang as his heavily armed guards looked on. Millat-e-Islamia, or Nation of Islam, was formed in 2002 by members of the notorious Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a Sunni organisation that was for years involved in tit-for-tat killings with militants from Shia sect. President Pervez Musharraf banned the SSP and several other militant groups in January 2002 after joining the US-led campaign against terrorism following the September 11 attacks on the United States. The US also put the SSP on its watch list of terrorist groups. Its supporters regrouped with a new name but Musharraf, under pressure from the United States to tackle militants, banned the Millat-e-Islamia in 2003. Ludhianvi, who is running for parliament as an independent candidate, denied that his supporters were involved in militancy. “The SSP and Millat-e-Islamia have never had any link with terrorist activities. We’ve always distanced ourselves from terrorism,” he said. “As far as the ban on my party is concerned, I think it was a repressive act,” Ludhianvi said. He said he was fighting the ban in the court and would also make his case in the National Assembly. “After winning, I will raise my voice for the reinstatement of my party in parliament,” he said. Election Commission officials say Ludhianvi could not be prevented from taking part in the election unless a complaint was lodged against his candidacy. Ludhianvi’s main rival in the election is Sheikh Waqas Ahmed, a candidate for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, who ridiculed the government crackdown on militancy, saying it was a show put on for the West. “It’s just a gimmick,” he said. “They tell the goras (Westerners) that they are eliminating terrorism and extremism but the organisations banned for extremism are operating freely,” Ahmed said, pointing out the flags of the Millat-e-Islamia fluttering across the town. Ludhianvi’s predecessor as head of the militant group, Azam Tariq, contested the last general election in 2002, while he was in jail and had won the vote. In parliament, after he was released from jail, he backed a pro-Musharraf coalition but the firebrand pro-Taliban cleric was gunned down on the outskirts of Islamabad in 2003. His supporters blamed Shias for the killing. |
| Posted by:Fred |