Punjab: Timeline (Terrorist Activities) -2002

However, a spokesperson for the Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JD), the new name for Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (MDI), the parent organisation of LeT, denied that 100 arrests were made in Punjab. He said the arrests were made in Karachi, Islamabad, Sukkur, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan and Bahawalpur. He said at some places the district administration sealed the JD’s offices and confiscated office records. He opined that it was unfair that the JD was being victimised in the wake of Indian allegations against the LeT. He claimed that the LeT had wound up its activities and offices in Pakistan and was confining itself to Kashmir on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC). Official sources have indicated that the arrests would continue in Punjab and their scope could be expanded to the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Read less...

In continuing crackdown on terrorist outfits, Punjab police on January 1 arrested 100 more terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) from Lahore and other cities in southern Punjab. "Police and security forces in a crackdown on Lashkar-i-Taiba and Jaish-i-Mohammad have picked up around 100 members and leaders of both the parties," said LeT spokesperson Yahya Mujahid. Criticising the crackdown, he said, "We are against all acts of terrorism and we have repeatedly said we are not involved in the December 13 attack on the Indian parliament." Mujahid said the LeT had already halted its activities in Pakistan and shifted its offices to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). "There is no Lashkar setup now in Pakistan," he declared. Read less...

Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari of the Lahore High Court allowed, on January 1, a petitioner-lawyer to amend his petition against the ban on the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) to confine it to the detention of their chiefs. Advocate M D Tahir pointed the importance of Jehad in Islam in his arguments against the ban. The Judge observed that he had disjoined a number of aspects and had sought a variety of relief measures, which could only be considered separately. While demanding withdrawal of the ban imposed on the two Pakistan-based terrorist outfits, the petitioner had sought disbandment of India's Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Shiv Sena and the trial of their leaders. Read less...

Media reports have pointed that police have also arrested JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar's four brothers––Tahir, Suleman, Rauf and Wahid. Police also recovered a huge quantity of weapons during raids, besides arresting five bodyguards of Masood Azhar. The Bahawalpur police also reportedly started to prepare a list of cases against Masood Azhar around the country, which includes one for firing on Gujranwala police and another relating to the torture of a police officer. Read less...

Reports from Multan indicated that police officials have received no instructions to this effect from the Punjab government and no one was arrested in Multan. Separately, reports said, inquiries with the offices of JeM and LeT confirmed that they had faced no crackdown or arrest. Read less...

Intelligence agencies in the area have reportedly commenced collecting proof and information about persons funding the terrorist and sectarian groups and sheltering their leaders. News sources said the Federal government had issued instructions to all law enforcement agencies to prepare lists of traders, printing presses and computer designers who were publishing literature and other documents for such outfits. The bank balances, status of business, living standards and other activities of persons involved in attending meetings of such groups were also being collected, sources said. Read less...

Over two dozen religious leaders and activists were arrested by the Faisalabad police during a crackdown on January 3. Police raided almost all the offices of terrorist and sectarian outfits in the city and took into custody office-bearers and activists of the Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP), Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-e-Toiaba. Police also seized literature and other related material during raids on the offices of religious bodies. All the arrested have reportedly been shifted to unknown places. Read less...

Punjab police, on January 3, arrested more than 80 cadres of different terrorist and sectarian outfits in the province. Following a list of some 300 cadres of various terrorist groups in Lahore and a similar list of over 500 cadres for other parts of the province, the Punjab police had launched the operation, participated by the security wing of the Punjab police, special branch and intelligence agencies. According to media reports, cadres of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish –e-Mohammed (JeM), are being arrested though the law enforcement agencies have been asked to crackdown on all terrorist and sectarian outfits. However, LeT spokesperson Yahya Mujahid said only one cadre of his outfit was arrested. "The authorities say that the operation was meant only for sectarian militant groups like Sipah-i-Sahaba and Tehrik-i-Jafria," he added. Yahya also said 12 LeT cadres and some 80 JeM cadres had already been arrested from all over Pakistan. Read less...

They added that not even a single terrorist outfit had its documented record of source of income and expenditure. A majority of these groups had no bank accounts, property and other belongings in the Faisalabad district and their offices had been set up in rented buildings, sources indicated. The law enforcement agencies have already removed all signboards and hoardings of these groups from city roads and cash boxes put in shops for collecting donations in the name of Jehad. Read less...

Citing a senior functionary of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a news report said that 200 activists of the outfit were arrested in a series of raids by security agencies on January 4-5 in Sindh and Punjab. Read less...

Other reports said the Faisalabad City chief of the SSP, Maulana Habibur Rehman, arrested for violating the ban on the use of loudspeakers, was also set free released by a local court on bail. Read less...

Police in the Punjab arrested over 80 activists of the different jihadi outfits and militant groups, reports from Pakistan said, on January 4. A majority of them belonged to the Lashkar-e-Toiba LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Tehrik-i-Jaferia Pakistan and Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). Reports also said an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore, on January 4, sent 17 activists of militant groups on judicial remand. Of the over-80 arrested, 18 were taken into custody from Lahore and the suburbs. 20 more were held from Faisalabad and the remaining from other places in the province. Read less...

Reports from Faisalabad, Punjab, said local units of religious parties, under the aegis of Pak-Afghan Defence Council (PADC), took out a protest rally on January 4 against what they called wrong foreign policy of the government. The rally commenced at the local office of the Jamaat-i-Islami and was addresses by PADC leaders. The PADC is a conglomeration of religious parties Read less...

Reports from Pakistan, on January 4, said police in Faisalabad, Punjab, had set free all the persons they had detained during the ongoing crackdown on activists of religious parties. Over two dozen activists of the Tehrik-i-Jaferia Pakistan, the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) were arrested during surprise raids on January 3. They were set free after leaders reportedly called on Punjab Governor and senior Provincial Home Department officials and pleaded that the arrests were unjustified and that those detained were neither involved in any criminal cases nor had they violated any government instructions. They also assured the police that their cadres would not cause any law and order problem. Consequently, the Home Department ordered the release of those detained. Read less...

According to media reports, police arrested approximately 45 cadres of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in raids on January 6. "In all some 45 of their members were picked up in raids late on Saturday and early on Sunday. At least 32 Jaish members were among the detainees", said Hassan Burki, spokesperson for the JeM. He said police in several southern districts of Punjab raided mosques, homes and offices searching for cadres and weapons. "Police entered our homes, insulting our elders and women. They searched our homes for weapons and messed everything up," Burki said. He added that the Jaish would challenge the arrests of its cadres in the courts. "The law provides protection even to criminals. We will challenge the arrests of our cadres and the government will have to tell what was their offence. If we did not get justice through the legal course, it would mean that state terrorism is being meted out to us," he said. The spokesperson claimed that Pakistan was bowing to pressure from India and the international community. "All this is being done to please India and Blair," he said, adding these detentions would not make any difference to the outfit. Read less...

Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP) Chief Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi claimed in Rawalpindi, on January 7, that the government was implicating his cadres in crimes committed by students of madrassas (seminaries) belonging to other sects. He said the crackdown should be limited to only those groups that were involved in sectarian violence. He also criticized the government for conducting raids on religious schools and termed it as a conspiracy to close them. Read less...

An additional district and sessions judge in Toba Tek Singh, on January 10, released on bail Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) district President Maulana Muhammad Awais and Jamaat -Ulema-e-Islam (JuI –Fazlur Rahman faction) leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Rabbani. They were arrested under Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Act about a week ago during a crackdown on religious activists. A case was also registered against them on November 6, 2001 on charges of delivering provocative speeches against the government and the United States at a public meeting held under the aegis of the Pakistan Afghanistan Defence Council (PADC). Read less...

Maulana Masood Azhar, Chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the former Chief of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) have been detained for three months under the provisions of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance for making provocative speeches against government policies. Assistant Advocate General Amin Lone disclosed this while making a statement in Lahore before Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari, on January 10. The order issued on December 25, 2001 seeking the arrest of Maulana Azhar was also presented to the Court. The order Maulana Azhar with instigating the general masses to rise against the government. The order declared that his speeches, presence, or other activities promote feelings of hatred and ill-will among various sects and thus constitutes a serious threat to national security and the solidarity of Pakistan. Read less...

The Lahore High Court (LHC), on January 11, upheld the three-month detention of Maulana Masood Azhar, Chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, ex-Chief of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). The LHC rejected a petition that contended that the detentions were illegal. Azhar has been detained since December 25, 2001 under the Maintenance of Public Order law, and since early January 2001 has been held in the Mianwali district jail, about 250 km south west of Lahore. Saeed was being detained in the Sihala rest house within a Punjab police training camp, about 40 km east of Rawalpindi. Read less...

Munawar Hasan, Jamaat-e-Islam (JeI) acting Chief, has termed the ban on terrorist and sectarian organisations as unjustified. Addressing an organisational convention in Lahore, on January 13, he claimed that the Musharraf regime was taking steps against national interests under duress from the US and Indian governments. He said, "President Musharraf had been calling Kashmir freedom struggle a jihad for the last 27 months and all jihadi groups were working right under his nose. Will he care to explain, who has been patronising jihad for all those 25 years in Afghanistan and for 12 years in Kashmir." He also said the speech of President Musharraf was full of contradictions and he tried to divert public attention from real issues. Read less...

Sheikh Jamil ur Rehman, ‘Military Chief’ of the Tehreek-al-Mujahideen and Secretary General of the Muttahida Jehad Council (MJC) in a statement from Muzaffarabad on January 13 has welcomed President Pervez Musharaf's reaffirmation for Pakistani moral and political support to the ‘Kashmiri cause’. He said that this "will boost the moral of Kashmiri people struggling for their right of self determination." Read less...

Syed Sajid Ali Naqvi, President of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP), has denied press reports that the party has been renamed as Millat-e-Jaferia Pakistan (MJP). He said, in Lahore, on January 13, "The question of renaming the TJP does not arise." He said the offices of the defunct TJP were mainly functioning in rental buildings, which have already been vacated. He also denied reports that he was arrested in Islamabad. He said consultations were in progress on approaching the courts for legal action. He said police have taken dozens of defunct TJP cadres from Sindh and Punjab into custody. Meanwhile, Tauqeer Baba, General Secretary of the defunct TJP, Punjab, welcomed the imposition of ban on the outfit. He said, "We can sacrifice to any extent for the sake of sectarian peace and harmony…If President Pervez Musharraf considers that sectarian peace can prevail by imposing a ban, we accept it wholeheartedly. The parties come and go and these never matter for the sake of the nation and supremacy of law." Read less...

Police in Faisalabad removed on January 14 signboards, posters, banners and flags from the offices of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP) and Tanzeem Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM). Police also took into custody hundreds of cash boxes put up by the LeT for collection of donations. Read less...

The crackdown on cadres and leaders of the five banned groups continued on January 14 throughout Punjab province. In Faisalabad, 19 more activists of the SSP and TJP were arrested and 17 offices of the banned groups were sealed across the district. Approximately 40 activists of the banned groups, including SSP and TJP, have so far been arrested in the Bahawalpur district. Forty activists of the banned outfits have been arrested from different parts of the Vehari district. Police also sealed 12 offices of SSP, TJP and JeM besides confiscating their literature. Police in Sheikhupura arrested 30 activists and sealed the offices of religious outfits in different areas. Read less...

The Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool said in Lahore on January 14 that the proscribed sectarian and terrorist outfits would not be allowed to resurface with any new nomenclature. He disclosed that the provincial government had arrested approximately 550 cadres and sealed 250 offices of these groups and organisations since the January 12. He said that the government would closely monitor their activities to ensure that they do not re-emerge with new names. Read less...

The Pakistan Afghanistan Defence Council (PADC) has announced that it would start a campaign against the government's decision of banning five sectarian and terrorist outfits. Mian Maqsood Ahmed in Lahore announced the decision on January 15. Read less...

According to official figures quoted in The News, a Pakistani daily, a total of 1,975 persons have been arrested so far in connection with the countrywide crackdown on five proscribed terrorist and sectarian outfits. 615 offices of these organisations have been sealed. Of the arrested, as many as 735 persons were confined and 336 offices sealed in Punjab; 852 arrested and 180 offices closed in Sindh; 337 persons detained and 81 offices shut in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP); 15 arrested and an equal number of offices sealed in Baluchistan and 18 persons arrested and 3 offices sealed in Islamabad. Read less...

Five security force personnel were injured in a terrorist attack at the main gate of the Lahore airport on January 16. Official sources have indicated that the incident could be related to the recent proscription of five terrorist and sectarian outfits. The terrorists who carried out the attack managed to escape from the incident site. Read less...

Four Arabs and two Pakistanis were arrested on January 17 in Punjab for suspected links with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network. Read less...

A media report quoting local police sources in Faisalabad on January 21 indicated that Riaz Basra, chief of the proscribed Shia terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), who is reported to be involved in series of sectarian killings, was arrested and has been taken to an unknown place for interrogation. Read less...

A group of 16 terrorists, detained after a crackdown on sectarian and terrorist groups, were released on January 24 in Bahawalpur due to the lack of evidence. Media sources have indicated that the released 16 were cadres of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). As reported earlier, in the countrywide crackdown consequent to President Musharraf’s speech on January 12, a total of 2010 cadres of five proscribed sectarian and terrorist outfits were arrested and 624 offices of the JeM, LeT, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Tehreek-e-Nifaz-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP) and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) were sealed till January 24. Read less...

Military regime spokesperson Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi on January 29 ruled out reports of Osama bin Laden ever having received medical treatment in Rawalpindi. "This smacks of a story that has been tailor made. There are two dialysis centres in Rawalpindi, one in the AFIU and the other in MH. Both the doctors in charge of these hospitals have refuted these reports as they have a complete list of all those who have received dialysis treatment", he said. He also said that President Musharraf had not said that bin Laden had received dialysis machines from Pakistan. He also ruled out the presence of bin laden in Pakistan at any time in the past. Read less...