Crackdown on SSP, JM : 170 arrested

[sparklingway]

Police widen hunt for militants
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By Abdul Manan
July 13, 2010

LAHORE: Police have widened the hunt for suspects linked to outlawed militant groups in southern Punjab as reports of more arrests filtered through on Monday.

Up to 78 suspects – more than double the number picked up in Saturday night’s and Sunday’s raids – have been detained under sections 3 and 16 of the Maintenance Public Ordinance (MPO) since July 10, police officials said here.

The arrests – carried out in four ranges/divisions of the province – were made on the basis of a consolidated home department list prepared in 1990 and also the fourth schedule of the Anti Terrorism Act 1997. The fourth schedule – long derided as a black law by the leaders of the banned groups – compels a detainee to inform the local police about his or her movements.

Sources in the police department reveal that law enforcement personnel have begun mounting an operation against the outlawed Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. This was preceded by a crackdown on the first line of Siphah-e-Sahaba and Tehrik-e-Jafria Pakistan, which are operating under new names in southern Punjab.

Muhammad Saleem, a tehsil president of Jaish-e-Muhammad, was rounded up early Monday by Rahimyar Khan police.

Several villages of of Bahawalpur and Bahawalnagar – a stronghold of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi – have also been raided by the police. Security officials believe that Matiur Rehman, one of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s most wanted fugitives who has over 10 million cash prize on his head, is hiding somewhere.

Several villages located near the River Sutlej as well as homes belonging to Rehman’s relatives were also raided for the first time. One relative of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi activist was rounded up during a late night raid on Sunday.

Babar Bakht Qureshi, the acting regional police officer of Bahawalpur and the district police officer, told The Express Tribune that until now police had arrested 16 members of banned organisations. The detained suspects were accused of involvement in promoting the agendas of the banned organisations.

Qureshi vowed that the operation would continue until the last miscreant in his range was rounded up.

The district police officer of Rahimyar Khan told The Express Tribune that he had arrested two activists of banned organisations and named one of them as Muhammad Khaldi of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.

He said that the rest of all the suspected activists under fourth schedule of ATA had been called by the respective police stations for renewal of their surety bonds. All the fourth schedule suspects have been asked to stay in touch with police and inform police stations about their movements.

Dera Ghazi Khan police officer Ahmad Mubarak told The Express Tribune that 28 activists had been picked up from the four districts of his range. Mubarak said he had devised a strong information network to back up the police operation against banned organisations.

Police in Multan have arrested 25 suspects from its three districts, according to RPO Arif Ikram. However, he refused to disclose the whereabouts of the detained activists. Another eight suspects were picked up from two districts of Sahiwal range on July 11.

Police officials say they have prepared a lengthy questionaire which must be filled out by people coming under the fourth schedule. They said the questions pertained to the data of suspects and about their relatives, friends, businesses, addresses and other information, etc.

RPO Multan Ahmad Mubarak says the form has proven useful because it is helping policemen gather information about the outlawed groups.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13th, 2010.

 

[EjazR]

Pakistan Cracks Down on al Qaeda-Linked Groups - WSJ.com

LAHORE, Pakistan—Pakistan's most populous province began a crackdown Monday on banned Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda, little more than a week after a suicide bomb attack targeting moderate Muslims here killed more than 40 people.

The July 1 attack in Lahore caused widespread outrage; moderate Muslim organizations threatened to arm themselves and fight extremist groups unless the government of Punjab province, in eastern Pakistan on the border with India, took action.

Police across Punjab detained 178 people in a continuing operation on Monday, largely members of the banned al Qaeda-linked terrorist organization Sipah-e-Sahaba and an associated group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, senior provincial police officers said.

The raids began Sunday night across the province, with a focus on southern areas where militants have found widespread support. Police said they had closed 22 branches of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, an Islamist organization that they say has acted as a front for Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi activists since the two groups were banned in 2002.

Activists from banned group Jaish-e-Muhammad were also detained but later released, police said. It was unclear whether any of the detained militants had been charged.

Police said those detained didn't include members of banned group Lashkar-e-Taiba, alleged by India to have carried out attacks on Mumbai in 2008 that killed more than 160 people.

Pakistan had previously arrested seven people, including Lashkar-e-Taiba militants, in connection with the Mumbai attacks, and they are facing trial. India has been calling for Pakistan to arrest others, including the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, who remains free. Pakistan says it lacks evidence to do so, and the dispute will be a centerpiece of high-level peace talks in Islamabad on Thursday between the foreign ministers of the two nations.

U.S. Gen. David Petraeus made his first visit to Pakistan on Monday after assuming responsibility for coalition forces in Afghanistan. Gen. Petraeus praised Pakistan's efforts in battling militants.

"Recent events demonstrate both the common threat posed to Pakistan and Afghanistan by insurgents and the efforts that the Pakistan military are making to counter this threat," he said in a statement after meeting with Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

Raghib Hussain Naeemi, head of the Sunni Ittehad Council, a moderate Muslim group based in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, said the detentions were a welcome first step to stopping escalating sectarian attacks on his community by al Qaeda-linked groups.

Mr. Naeemi's father was killed last year in Lahore by a suicide bomber after criticizing the Pakistan Taliban's campaign of violence against the state. Protests in Lahore following his death threatened to trigger sectarian violence between religious moderates—who are the majority in Pakistan—and Saudi Arabia-inspired hard-liners.

The double suicide attack July 1 on Lahore's Data Gunj Bakhsh complex, a popular shrine to a Muslim saint, led to an armed procession of moderate groups threatening to defend themselves if the government didn't take action.

It was unclear what evidence led to the detentions Monday or whether they were linked to the attack on the shrine.

Moderate leaders say militants are able to find shelter among many of the hard-line mosques in Punjab. These extremists support the imposition of Sharia law in Pakistan. They also oppose the widespread veneration of popular Muslim saints, which they say isn't permitted by Islam.

Until now, Punjab's government has repeatedly argued that it lacked specific evidence linking Islamist groups to terrorism and feared stirring a backlash among poor, ultraconservative communities, especially in southern Punjab.

Allama Ahmad Ludhianvi, chief of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, the group police say is a front for Sipah-e-Sahaba, condemned the arrests and closure of his organization's branches, which he said in a statement were made "at the behest of foreign forces." Mr. Ludhianvi denied ties to terrorism.

Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf banned the Punjab-based Islamist groups in 2002 under intense pressure from the U.S. following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Pakistani authorities made scores of arrests, but many militants fled to Pakistan's northwestern borders with Afghanistan, where they teamed with al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. Many joined the war against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Others were able to regroup in Punjab, becoming members of organizations with new names, police say. Local authorities failed to clamp down on these groups, some of which helped deliver votes during elections, Punjab government officials say.

Many of the militants had historic links with Pakistan's armed forces and military intelligence, which had trained them to fight as proxy militia against Indian forces in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Other groups, such as Sipah-e-Sahaba, were tolerated because they had mainly targeted Muslims from Pakistan's minority Shiite community, which is politically powerless.

Those links began to fray as Pakistan's military, aided by U.S. drone strikes, began a war almost two years ago aimed at dislodging the Taliban and its allies from the tribal regions in the northwest, where they had set up a parallel government.

In retaliation, a nexus of Punjabi militants, al Qaeda and Taliban operatives have unleashed a wave of suicide bombings across Pakistan. The attacks, initially aimed at government, police and army targets, have become more indiscriminate in recent months, hitting markets, schools and the Data Gunj Bakhsh shrine.

 

[Frankenstein]

Hunt these low life B@stards down, who are destabilizing our country, good job

 

[indushek]

Great job guys, congrats. Hunt these bastards down and kill them like vermin they are.

 

[seekers]

1.khadmein e harmain shareef has condemned first time the terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

2.Rehman Malik said "terrorist are looking for negotiation after reccent operation against Banned religious group"


Two Headlines News.