The Sipah-e-Sahaba (SS),[a] also known as the Millat-e-Islamiyya (MI),[b] is a Sunni Islamist banned Deobandi organisation in Pakistan.[1] Founded by Pakistani cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in 1989 after breaking away from Sunni Deobandi party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), it was based in Jhang, Punjab, but had offices in all of Pakistan's provinces and territories.[2][3] It operated as a federal and provincial political party until it was banned and outlawed as a terrorist organization by Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf in 2002. Even though it has been banned by the Pakistani government on numerous occasions, the Sipah-e-Sahaba has continued to operate under a different name throughout the country;[4][5] it has significant underground support in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The organization was also banned by the United Kingdom, where there is a significant Pakistani diaspora population, in 2001.[6]
On 26 June 2018, before that year's election, the Pakistani government lifted a 2012 ban on the Sipah-e-Sahaba and removed the terrorist designation for certain Sipah-e-Sahaba officials.[7][8][9]
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan was formed in 1985 by Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Zia ur Rehman Farooqi, Isar-ul-Haq Qasmi and Azam Tariq in 1985 originally as Anjuman Sipah-e-SahabainJhang, Pakistan.[5][11][12][1] The original purpose was to fight Shi'ite landlords dominance in Jhang and surrounding areas in a majority Sunni population.[11] Later, they became violent and started to attack Shi'ite Muslims.[11] From 1980s, they are involved in various terrorist activities and murder of thousands of Shi'ites. They are operating all over Pakistan and are politically active having large vote bank in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).[11] They are widely organized and have more than five hundred offices throughout country.[11][1]
In 1996, many left the group and formed another organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).[11]
In 2002, Pervez Musharraf government declared the group as terrorist organization and was banned.[11] However, later, they renamed it and launched it under the name of Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan.[11][1] They were again banned in 2003.[11] After the death of Azam Tariq, Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi was selected as the president.[citation needed] Later, in 2003, they changed their name to Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat.[1] (At least as of 2014 it was still using ASWJ.)[13][14]
A leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba was a minister in the coalition Government in Punjab in 1993 and the group has held seats in the Pakistan National Assembly.[3][5]
When Jhangvi was assassinated in 1990 by presumed Shi'a militants, Zia ur Rehman Farooqi assumed leadership of the group. Zia ur Rehman Farooqi died in a bomb explosion on 19 January 1997 at the Lahore Session Court.[5] After his death, Azam Tariq led the group until October 2003, when he was also killed in an attack widely attributed to the militant Shi'a organization Sipah-e-Muhammad, along with four others.[3][5]
The SSP is driven by a rigid interpretation of Deobandi Islam that considers Shias and non-Deobandi Sunnis heretical. "If Islam is to be established in Pakistan," SSP leader Azam Tariq once said, "then Shias must be declared infidels.[1]
According to Stanford University "Mapping Militant Organizations writing as of February 2012, the "primary methods" of Sipah-e-Sahaba
are targeted killings of prominent Shias – including political activists, doctors, businessmen and intellectuals .[19] In addition to targeting Shias, the SSP has also been implicated in attacks on members of the Ahmadi sect and followers of the Barelvi school of Sunni Islam. The SSP's actions have spurred a cycle of violence and assassinations and several of its leaders have been killed – including Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in 1990, Isar ul-Qasmi in 1991, Zia ul-Rehman Farooqi in 1997, and Azam Tariq in 2003.[1]
The organization has 500 offices and branches in all provinces of Pakistan including Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. It also has approximately 300,000 registered workers in Pakistan and 17 branches in countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Canada and the United Kingdom.[3]
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In 1996 elements within the Sipah-e-Sahaba who did not believe the organisation violent enough left to form the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.[5]
In October 2000, Masood Azhar, founder of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed, was quoted as saying that "Sipah-e-Sahaba stands shoulder to shoulder with Jaish-e-MuhammadinJihad."[5] A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable described it as "another Sipah-e-Sahaba breakaway Deobandi organisation."[21]
A diplomatic cable, originally dated 23 October 2009 and later leaked to the media, from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad indicated that Qari Hussain, a leading militant of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, had roots in the defunct Sipah-e-Sahaba and that many of the Taliban's foot soldiers are from Sipah-e-Sahaba ranks.[21]
According to Animesh Roul, Ahle-Sunnat-Wal-Jamat is a front group for Sipah-e-Sahaba, and is also banned in Pakistan.[22]
^Hassan Abbas, Pakistan's Drift into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror (New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2005), p. 167; Amir Mir, The True Face of Jehadis (Lahore: Mashal Books, 2004), pp. 171-2.
^Muhammad Amir Rana, "Jihadi Print Media in Pakistan: An Overview" in Conflict and Peace Studies, vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct-Dec 2008), p. 4
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