Posted on 11/16/2003 8:03:03 AM PST by knighthawk
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Police arrested a Shiite Muslim leader in connection with the assassination of a rival Sunni lawmaker amid a crackdown on several Islamic groups, officials said Sunday.
Allama Sajid Naqvi, the leader of Tehreek-i-Islami Pakistan, was arrested late Saturday in Rawalpindi, a city neighboring the capital, Islamabad, Interior Ministry spokesman Abdur Rauf Chaudhry said.
Naqvi was arrested in the killing of Maulana Azam Tariq, the leader of Millat-e-Islamia who was fatally shot Oct. 7 as he drove on the outskirts of Islamabad, Chaudhry said. His alleged role in that killing was not clear.
On Saturday, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf ordered a ban on Millat-e-Islamia and Naqvi's Shiite group, as well as on Khudam-ul Islam, a militant group which claims to send Islamic insurgents to Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Authorities closed down the offices of the three groups in the southern cities of Karachi and Hyderabad and in the eastern city of Lahore on Friday.
Another radical group, Jamat-ul Dawat, was placed on a watch list, but not banned outright.
Musharraf banned a host of Islamic militant groups in 2001, following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. But many of the groups simply changed their names and stayed in operation.
Millat-e-Islamia, for instance, was a reconfiguration of the hardline Sipah-e-Sahaba group blamed for the killing of hundreds of Shiite Muslims in recent years. Khudam-ul Islam emerged from the banned group Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Jamat-ul Dawat is a new manifestation of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
U.S. Ambassador Nancy J. Powell on Thursday said in a speech in Karachi that Washington was concerned that banned Pakistani groups were re-establishing themselves under new names, and singled out Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.
Leaders from the three banned groups said Sunday that they would challenge the ban.
A spokesman for Naqvi's Tehreek-i-Islami Pakistan said the leader was arrested for "political reasons."
"We will definitely challenge the ban. It is injustice," Izhar Bokhari said.
In the central Pakistan city of Multan, about 800 mainly Shiite supporters of Naqvi protested his arrest. They demanded his release and chanted "Down with Musharraf" in the Shiite-dominated neighborhood of Shia Miani.
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