Maulana Sufi Mohammad, the founder of banned Swat-based religious outfit Tehreek-e-Nifaze Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), who is considered as one of the most dangerous Taliban leaders, has been released by the government after his six-year detention and shifted him to a hospital in Peshawar from Dera Ismail Khan prison.
The Maulana was shifted to Peshawar on a special aircraft with speculations that the government is considering bringing him into the scene to pacify the situation in Swat valley, where his son-in-law, Maulana Fazlullah, is leading an insurgency against the law enforcers and the government.
Before his shifting to the hospital in Peshawar, reports were intentionally planted in newspapers regarding the seriousness of his illness at Dera Ismail Khan prison, therefore the government had no other option but to shift him to Peshawar for medical treatment.
However, some senior doctors at Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC) disclosed to the press that the Maulana was stable and his condition was not as serious as was being propagated by the government.
Sources told the Weekly Pulse that many high ranking officials met Maulana Sufi Mohammad in D.I.Khan prison and after consultations, he was shifted to Peshawar. It may be mentioned here that one of the four demands of Maulana Fazlullah to stop insurgency in Swat was the release of his father-in-law.
Sources in Swat said after shifting Maulana Sufi Mohammad to Peshawar, the government was in serious discussion with his close aides and relatives in Swat to convince him to ask his son-in-law to surrender and stop targeting the law enforcement agencies and government installations.
It is said that the Maulana is ready to play his role to bring peace in the area because he always opposed aggression and violence in the past for the implementation of Islam and believed on peaceful process. That is what he told a government-sponsored Jirga sent to him last Thursday as was reported by one of the English dailies in Peshawar. The Jirga that met Sufi Mohammad comprised two caretaker provincial ministers, IGP NWFP Sharif Virk and Home Secretary Bacha Gul Wazir. Reportedly, he assured the Jirga members of his complete cooperation.
Earlier, a Jirga of political elders requested rebels to cease fire and urged the government to start talks with the militants, but it failed when both sides violated the ceasefire and heavy casualties were reported.
The Jirga elders asked the government to implement the Shariat Act and Nizam-i-Adl regulations. The government was also serious to enforce it, but another demand of Maulana Fazlullah, which was to remove army checkposts and send back troops to their regular positions, was not accepted by the government.
The TNSM is one of the five religious groups that were banned by President Gen Pervez Musharraf on January 12, 2002. The TNSM was founded in 1992 with the purpose of implementing Sharia in their areas. It is a militant Wahabi outfit, whose ideology is to change Pakistan into a state on the pattern of Taliban’s Afghanistan. In one of his speeches in 1998, Sufi Mohammad reportedly declared that those opposing the imposition of Sharia were Wajib-ul-Qatl (commendable of death).
Sufi Mohammad was imprisoned by Pakistani border forces in 2001 when he tried to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan where he was leading his militants against the American forces. Many of his followers were killed in the fight against the US forces, and many captured.
Since then, he has been in detention. However, once he was asked to quit prison, but he refused, saying that he did not accept release under the law made by the Britishers.
Maulana Fazlullah, in his 30s, had lost one of his brothers in a bombardment allegedly by the US forces in one of the seminary in Bajaur area in February 2006. Soon after, he took command of the TNSM in Swat and time and again started challenging the government’s writ.
The residents said had he been stopped before, there would have been no such situation like the people and government were presently facing. Earlier, he was intentionally allowed to challenge the government’s writ and now when things had gone out of control, the government had deployed army.
Though, people of Swat are completely supporting the government, it seems the situation would not be controlled without the involvement of Sufi Mohammad. “If his release can bring peace to the region, then this is not a big deal,” opined a senior citizen from Swat, who for the last over two months has been living in Peshawar due to the unrest in Swat.
