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Terrorist Group of Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan
(TJP) meaning 'movement of the followers of Fiqah-e-Jaferia’, the dominant
Shia outfit in Pakistan was formed in 1992. The origin of TJP can be
traced to the Tehreek Nifaz Fiqah-e-Jafria (TNFJ) meaning ‘movement
for the implementation of Fiqah-e-Jafreia' (a school of Islamic jurisprudence
which is traced back to its founder Imam Jafar Sadiq) which was formed
in 1979 to protect the interests of the Shiite minority and to spread
the ideas of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader who led the successful
Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran in 1979. It is widely
believed that the Sunni clergy considered the name of Tehreek Nifaz-e-Fiqah-e-Jaferia
as being offensive and opposed the Shias, a minority sect demanding
the imposition of their fiqah (a school of Islamic jurisprudence)
in a Sunni majority Pakistan. Following this backlash, the Shia leadership
is reported to have changed the name from TNFJ to Tehreek-e-Jaferia
Pakistan (TJP) in 1994. It is also believed that the outfit changed
its nomenclature because the party, under Allama Arif Husseini, wanted
to extend its membership to the non-Shias also.
An ideological split divided
the movement into two groups: one headed by Hamid Musawi, the follower
of Ayatollah Sheriate-Madari; the other headed by Arif Husseini, the
follower of Khomeini’s teachings. Allama Hamid Ali Musawi's group continues
to function under the old nomenclature of TNFJ. The TJP had, during
the period of Allama Arif Husseini, undertaken upon itself to change
the party's complexion from a religious organisation to a progressive
political party acceptable to non-Shias as well. Towards this goal,
a political committee was constituted to work out the future strategy
in a given situation and negotiate with political leaders of standing
to join hands to achieve the objective. But the leadership, predominantly
religious scholars, dispensed with the committee to signal that the
TJP was and will remain a religious organisation.
Allama Husseini was killed
on August 6, 1988 in Peshawar. Amongst others, Captain Majid Raza Gilani,
who belonged to Jhang, was accused of the incident. As he was one of
the former staff members of President Zia, the TNFJ blamed Zia-ul-Haq
for his murder and launched vigorous protests.
The objectives projected
by the TJP are: the creation of a society based on ‘pure Islam’, the
protection of social, political and religious rights of Shiites, the
propaganda of Shiite ideas, coordination of all Pakistani Shiite organisations
and the fight against imperialism. It also believes in Islamic egalitarianism
and social justice. Two TJP members are also members of the Pakistani
Parliament. The TJP is reported to have links with the Iranian clergy.
The outfit source its finances from the Shiite community in Pakistan,
Iran as well as certain commercial groups.
The Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan,
led by Allama Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi, is a well-organised outfit, which
effectively represents the interests of the Shia community in Pakistan
with a significant following in Jhang. In recent years, as a result
of increased pressure from the Sunnis, the TJP has preferred to adopt
a more reconciliatory and accommodating posture than in the past when
it appeared more assertive and threatening vis-à-vis the government
and Sunnis. The TJP has several affiliated organisations, including
Sipah-e-Abbas, Sipah-e-Ahl-Bait and youth bodies like the Imamia Students
Organisation and the Imamia Organisation, which are reported to play
an active role. Since 1994, the Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP),
a splinter group of the TJP with a significant following in Jhang has
emerged as a prominent Shia terrorist outfit involved in anti-SSP campaigns,
violence and target killings. The TJP is one of the five outfits that
have been proscribed by President Pervez Musharraf on January 12, 2002.
The current violent phase
between the two communities, who had lived in relative harmony for many
centuries, is traced to the 1980s when a group of Deobandi militants
formed the Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASS), to wage 'war' against the Shia
landholders in Jhang. The ASS, later re-named as the Sipah-e-Sahaba
Pakistan (SSP), was established during the Islamisation
campaign of the then President Gen. Zia-ul-Haq, and coincided with the
Iranian revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. The Shiite Ulemas (religious
scholars) perceived his measures as an attempt to spread Sunnite norms
of Hanifite type in the Shiite community. According to analysts, sectarian
violence among the rival outfits intensified in the wake of the 'jihad'
in Afghanistan as Pakistan, particularly the central and southern Punjab,
served as a base for ‘mujahideen’ recruits. Most of these ‘mujahideen’
returned to Pakistan after the Russian forces pulled out in the late
1980s, and brought with them a sizeable supply of arms, ammunition and
a proclivity for violence. They joined the extremist sectarian outfits
and since then, sectarian rivalry was largely expressed through extreme
violence. Rivalry between the two outfits intensified when the SSP founder
Haq Nawaz Jhangvi was killed in March 1990. The same year also witnessed
the killing of an Iranian diplomat, Sadiq Ganji in Lahore. In 1997,
Jhangvi's successor Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi and 26 others were killed
in a bomb blast at the Lahore Sessions Court. In the aftermath, Iranian
diplomat Muhammad Ali Rahimi and six locals were killed in an attack
on the Iranian Cultural Centre in Multan. On April 12, 2000 three hand
grenades were lobbed at a gathering in a Shia mosque in Mulawali, the
hometown of Syed Sajid Naqvi, killing 13 persons, including five members
of the family of Syed Sajid Naqvi. The grenade was reportedly hurled
from an adjacent Sunni mosque. Shortly thereafter, a TJP leader, Syed
Farrukh Barjees was killed at Khanewal near Multan on April 26. On November
23 2000, Anwar Ali Akhunzada, the central general secretary of TJP in
Peshawar was assassinated by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).
To counter the Sunni militancy,
the Shias formed Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP)
in 1993. It is generally believed that Maulana Mureed Abbas Yazdani
created it in 1993 after he was convinced that the TJP would not allow
its young cadres to physically counter the SSP. The Shia youth had been
asking the TJP to take notice of what they called excesses of the SSP
whose members were alleged to be targeting some of the Shia's beliefs.
Allama Hamid Ali Musawi did not endorse the move. Subsequently, the
Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP), headquartered at Thokar Niaz Beg, was
created out of the TJP reportedly by Maulana Mureed Abbas Yazdani in
1993 and it adopted a more militant stance against the SSP than the
TJP would allow.
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