ISLAMABAD: Intelligence agencies are learnt to have identified as many as two dozen extremist militant and sectarian outfits operating in Karachi who may face a crackdown once the hunt for politically-backed target killers is over.
An official said on Sunday extremist organisations will be targeted in the next phase.
“This proposal is under consideration,” briefly remarked a senior official of the Interior Minister without specifying whether it would be conducted by Rangers or regular troops.
According to a report compiled by intelligence agencies, as many as 19 groups — five of them run by Shias — were active in the city and their associates were involved in bomb explosions and murders.
In some cases, the report added, there was a nexus between criminal elements and extremist outfits, which made things even more complicated.
Among the groups active in Karachi, the biggest is Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), an anti-Shia sectarian outfit involved in mass murder and improvised attacks on minority groups, including Ahmadis. It has a strong known al Qaeda link.
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), of which the LeJ is an offshoot, Harkat-e-Jihad-e-Islami, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan/al Qaeda, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen al Alami, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), Jund Allah, Tehreek Islami Lashkar-e-Muhammadi, Sunni Tehreek and Lashkar-e-Islami are the other Sunni groups active in Karachi.
Among Shia militant outfits are: Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP), Imamia Student Organisation (ISO), Tehreek-e-Jaffaria Pakistan, Mehdi Militia and Hezbollah.
Intelligence operatives are unsure about the exact number of individuals actively associated with these organisations but said they might be in thousands.
Officials, both in Islamabad and Karachi, said the presence of these groups in the city and their ‘working relationship’ with the criminals warranted swift and timely action by law enforcement agencies.
Last month, the government ordered a crackdown against target killers allegedly nurtured by three main political parties – the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP).
The decision came after top military commanders expressed concern about the law and order situation in the country’s most populous city.
Officials said ‘those at the helm of affairs’ wanted to take the ongoing operations in Karachi to its logical end and that was possible only when everyone involved in all kinds of violence were targeted.
An official of the Sindh metropolis’ Crime Investigation Department (CID) verified that the agency had been asked to prepare new lists detailing sectarian and militant organisations.
This might be an indication of a crackdown against them, the official added.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2011.
COMMENTS (13)
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Salam One thing which i wana to clear ISO(Imamia Student Orgainztion) is not invloved in any terrorist activity,i on behalf of ISO give message to takes words back,
@ ali I second you. Imamia Students Organization is not involved in any of such killing activities. If anyone thinks so he should go to courts. file a case of sectarian killing and make it banned. In case you cannot do so. Then stop blaming without any proves.
Imamia Students Organization is one of the biggest students orgnaization in pakistan which can help all over,
For officaials i suggest, atleast their should be a difference between right & wrong.....!!!!
@Pragmatic: You are very naive, do you honestly think terrorists are illiterate gullible morons living in caves only?
@Pragmatic:
Do you think that the Express Tribune is the only journal to carry this news?
@abbas: Do you honestly think an illiterate terrorist goes on the Express Tribune to get his daily news update?
Wow u r so intelligent, thank you for making it public so that it helps d terrorists. stop point scoring and use media for benefit of humanity instead of earning points from early reporting.
I hope the authorities remember to advise these groups via a reliable courier service as to date and time of the operation, to ensure the desired result.
I can see governments lack of commitment over it just like all other issues faced by the masses in the country. It is a big and civilized city and not a jungle where criminals can climb trees or go under water. Latest technologies should be used to combat target killings like sealing off the areas and taking finger prints, eye scans , making individual profiles of anyone entering/exiting the area and installing CCTV to monitor activities 24/7. An online forum to be introduced by the law enforcing agencies for citizens to report any suspicious activity in their area and to discuss how can they make their area a better place to live. This will cause less inconvenience to citizens, ensure long term peace in the city and better community building.
It only requires commitment and less expense (can be shared with the business community), but sadly it don’t offer much for our corrupt managers which means they will never implement such strategies. =)
What government agencies have done so far to nab sectarian extremists? Nothing.
Idea that top military agencies are soft on top sectarian outfits has made deep footprints on minds of educated people of country.
Why? what's the hurry? let a few more hundred rather thousands of innocent sub-human Pakistanis die and then make this announcement to rub salt into our wounds. Its the secret agencies who created these monsters in the first place, right?
This is extremely worrying. Telling people before the operation begins, seems to me that someone is singalling to these criminal to go underground before the operation begins.