ISLAMABAD, 21 November 2003 — Pakistan expanded a fresh crackdown on extremism yesterday by banning three more militant groups, including one whose leader is suspected of involvement in murdering US reporter Daniel Pearl.
Pakistan moved against underground militants after US Ambassador Nancy Powell voiced concern last week that groups banned last year had simply resurfaced under new names. The Interior Ministry said it had extended a banning order slapped on three groups at the weekend to cover three more.
They include Jamiat-ul Furqan, a splinter faction of the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammad, whose leader, Abdul Jabbar, is suspected of a role in killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and of attacks on Christian targets.
The two other groups covered by the extended ban are British-based Hizbul Tehreer and Jamiat-ul Ansar, formerly Harkat-ul Mujahedeen, which is fighting in Indian-ruled Kashmir. The United States and other countries, including Britain, have welcomed the crackdown.
However, analysts say it remains to be seen whether it will have teeth in an Islamic nation long used to juggling security needs with the sensibilities of powerful religious radicals commanding significant street-level support.
An Interior Ministry official said the action against the groups was being taken under anti-terror laws, though no specific charges were made against the outlawed organizations.
Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told reporters the government had decided to seek cash guarantees from activists of the groups instead of arresting them. “We are not going to carry out mass arrests ... at the first phase.” He said police had also been asked to monitor activists and the central bank to freeze the organizations’ bank accounts.
The police officials said that the activities of these groups were under surveillance for sometime and the government has concluded that their activities fall within the ambit of anti-terrorists laws.
These three banned organizations are engaged in militant activities and attacks on foreigners in Pakistan. The Musharraf government invoked anti-terrorists laws to impose ban on religious extremists groups in January 2002. However, some of these groups resurfaced with new names.
The government responded to it by banning Khuddam-e-Islam (involved in fighting in Kashmir and Afghanistan), Pakistan Tehrik-e-Islami and Millat-e-Islami (both involved in sectarian violence), which are in fact new names of old banned militant organizations. The government invoked a 1997 Anti-Terrorist Act which forbids the reemergence of banned organizations.
The officials said that around 150 offices have been sealed since last Saturday when government announced ban on extremists organizations which emerged with new name. The officials didn’t disclose what action are being taken against the three groups which have been banned yesterday.
However, the government has devised a new formula for the activists of these organization. Now instead of arresting them the government has asked nearly 600 activists to pledge up to 100,000 rupees ($1,725) as security guarantees. “We are not going for the arrest of members of these banned groups,” a senior Interior Ministry official said.
“We are closing down their offices so that they don’t have any offices to use for their activities. We are seeking guarantees from them that they do not indulge in such activities in the future. If they disobey the government ban again they will be punished,” said government official said.
Earlier yesterday, Interior Ministry spokesman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry said the government has frozen the bank accounts of the three groups and police were expected to close their headquarters. Chaudhry said the first two groups are suspected of promoting religious extremism, which may have contributed to an increase in terrorist attacks between rival Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Pakistan.
The third group, Jamiat-ul Ansar, is a renamed version of Harkat-ul Mujahedeen — a militant group prohibited last year. Harkat-ul Mujahedeen had admitted sending separatist rebels to fight in India’s portion of the divided Kashmir region.
In his comments to a gathering of newspaper editors, Musharraf said the banning of the radical Islamic groups was in the “national interest” and not done at the behest of a foreign power.
