Replies

Was Qari Noor Muhammad the right man?

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_18-8-2004_pg7_17

JUI-S says its arrested members have no contact with Qaeda

By Amir Rana

LAHORE: The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) claimed on Tuesday that its arrested members from Faisalabad had no link with Al Qaeda.

Talking to Daily Times from Akora Khattak, JUI-S spokesman Maulana Muhammad Yousaf Shah said the Mubarak Mosque committee chairman had conspired against the JUI-S members because one of them had refused to support him in embezzling the mosque's funds.

Punjab Elite Force and Faisalabad police arrested Qari Obaidullah Gurmani, Qari Noor Muhammad and Qari Imam Din from Mubarak Mosque near Gao Shala Mor in Faisalabad on Monday, suspecting them of having links with Al Qaeda.

Mr Yousaf said that Qari Noor Muhammad was the imam of Mubarik Mosque and had a dispute with the mosque committee chairman over the embezzlement of Rs 2 million in mosque funds. "Qari demanded the committee chairman spend the money on the mosque’s construction but the chairman refused. He offered Qari 50 percent of the amount for not raising the issue but Qari refused," said Mr Yousaf. He said that the committee chairman then lodged a false report against Qari Noor Muhammad claiming that he had links with Al Qaeda.

The JUI spokesman said that Qari Obaidullah was a visitor and the police also arrested him. JUI-S member Muhammad Yousaf Razi said the arrested men had no links with any jihadi organisation.

Some info about Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/sair/Archives/1_19.htm

The leaders of the MMA are now 'repackaging' themselves as democrats and Parliamentarians, and it is crucial that the current avatar of the MMA as a 'democratic political party' is not allowed to cloud the history of its many constituent members, including several of its most prominent elected representatives, many of whom comprise the frontline of the terrorist leadership in Pakistan, and have direct linkages with Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The most significant of these are the MMA's prime ministerial candidate, Maulana Fazl-ur-Rahman of the JuI-Fazlur, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq of the Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (Sami-ul-Haq faction) and Maulana Azam Tariq of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).

Fazl-ur-Rahman, who heads a faction of the JuI, is not just, as is generally believed, a 'supporter' of the Taliban. He - with Sami-ul-Haq - was its creator and remained intimately linked with both Mullah Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden throughout the period of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and had spearheaded street demonstrations in Pakistan, vociferously protesting the American campaign in Afghanistan after 9/11. He is also the creator of the banned terrorist organisation Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM, earlier called Harkat-ul-Ansar) and is closely linked with the activities of the Harkat ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI), and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). HuM and HuJI are active in India, Bangladesh, Chechnya, the Arakan areas of Myanmar and southern Philippines, while the JeM is currently active only in India.

Sami-ul-Haq, who heads his own faction of the JuI, runs the Haqqani Madrassa at Akora Khattak, which produced much of the Taliban leadership. Haq was the principal advisor to Mullah Omar and was closely associated with Osama bin Laden.