Religious killings on the rise in Pakistan despite crackdown [Sunni v. Shia]

Straits Times ^

[DeaconBenjamin]

Killings among rival Sunnis and Shi'ites have left 76 dead, casting doubts over anti-militant drive

ISLAMABAD - The resurgence of killings among the rival Sunni and Shi'ite sects of Islam, climaxing with the murder of Sunni icon Azam Tariq, has underscored long-held doubts about the direction of Pakistan's crackdown on Islamic militancy, analysts say.

Tariq's death 'was the most foretold in Pakistan', the Daily Times newspaper said, questioning how one of the most high-profile sectarian leaders could be gunned down in broad daylight as he entered the nation's capital.

To date, no one has been arrested for the Oct 6 killing, the most high-profile of at least 76 Shi'ite and Sunni deaths this year.

President Pervez Musharraf has carried out an official crackdown on Muslim extremists, a hallmark of his rule.

In January last year, four months into his role as one of the war on terror's most important allies, General Musharraf outlawed five Islamic militant groups and ordered the arrest of up to 2,000 of their followers.

Most of their leaders were already behind bars, locked up ahead of the United States' bombardment of Afghanistan in October 2001, to stave off a feared violent backlash.

Almost two years on, at least four of the outlawed organisations are operating under new names and their leaders are out of jail.

Tariq went straight from his prison cell to a seat in the federal Parliament despite his violent Sunni organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba being among those outlawed in January last year, and despite the 17 Shi'ite murder cases he was charged with.

Six months before his assassination, Tariq had set up a new organisation, Millat-e-Islamia, with similar office-holders to the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba. It was a familiar pattern.

Jaish-e-Mohammad, one of the most militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, has been renamed Jamaat-ul Furqan under its leader Masood Azhar, who was released from jail last December.

Another Kashmir-focused group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, has reverted to the name of its political wing, Jamaat-ud Dawa.

Lashkar's founder Hafiz Saeed was freed from prison late last year.

He now travels the country preaching jihad against India.

The Shi'ite extremist group Tehreek-i-Jafria renamed itself Islami Tehreek.

Some analysts say Gen Musharraf is seeking to keep both militants and the West happy.

'It is a strategy,' said an Islamabad-based Western analyst.

'By banning these groups he can keep the Americans happy, and at the same time these groups can re-name themselves and keep operating untouched at a lower profile, and the government gets to keep the proxy tools of its foreign policy,' he said, referring to rebels fighting Indian forces in disputed Kashmir.

[BlackVeil]

'By banning these groups he can keep the Americans happy, and at the same time these groups can re-name themselves and keep operating untouched at a lower profile ... Not good for the future. At the moment, it is the Shia of Pakistan who are bearing most of these extremists' violence. In the future, the Western powers will feel the effects themselves, and regret these policies.

[atc]

Sooner or later, we're gonna get bitten by this rabid dog.

[cardinal4]

Ah..the peaceful adherents of Islam...