Sufi Mohammed Released from "Protective Custody"

[TruthSeeker]

Sufi Mohammad in Peshawar?

http://www.defence.pk/forums/newthread.php?do=newthread&f=87

By Zulfiqar Ali
Monday, 06 Jul, 2009 | 11:22 PM PST |

PESHAWAR: Maulana Sufi Mohammad, the chief of the defunct Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi, surfaced on Monday — two months after he mysteriously went missing in Amandarra, the headquarters of TNSM, in Malakand region.

Bakht Wahid, an immediate relative, told Dawn on phone that Sufi Mohammad had reached Peshawar in the afternoon, along with his family. However, he refused to disclose the place where the 80-year-old Maulana had been staying since April.

‘We don’t know where Maulana Sufi and his family were detained,’ Mr Wahid said, adding that he had been released along with his family.

A government official, however, expressed ignorance about the release of the TNSM chief. ‘We were neither privy to his arrest nor are we privy to his release,’ he said.

NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain was not available for comment.

Credible sources said that Sufi Mohammad and his family had been taken into protective custody after he mysteriously disappeared from his headquarters in Amandarra.

Sufi Mohammad and 12 members of his family had moved to Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, where security agencies had taken them into protective custody. He was kept at an unspecified place.

The government has been refusing to admit the detention of the cleric. Sufi’s son Rizwanullah called Dawn correspondent in Timergara and said his father had been released. He refused to give further details.

The government had released Sufi Mohammad last year in order to strike a deal with the Taliban for peace in Malakand region. He went missing before the launch of the military operation in Malakand. One of his sons was killed in action and another suffered injuries.

Sufi’s deputy Maulana Mohammad Alam and TNSM spokesman Amir Izzat Khan were killed when a military convoy taking them to Peshawar was attacked on Sakhakot road, in Malakand, last month.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Sufi is in poor health and an octogenarian - better he dies a free man in his home, rather than in the custody of the GoP and become a martyr.

 

[Coolyo]

This is BS! I thought they arrested the guy and were gonna punish him!

I think they should kill the man for the countless that he has killed, we want him put down like the dog he is.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

This is BS! I thought they arrested the guy and were gonna punish him!

I think they should kill the man for the countless that he has killed, we want him put down like the dog he is.

The TNSM is not the same as the TTP. This time around at least Sufi did not kil anyone - he ended up being an ineffective and weak interlocutor without any ability to control the TTP and Mullah FM, and the efforts he did make were rather weak.

His pronouncements against democracy and the Pakistani justice system did ironically help solidify Pakistani opposition to the Taliban, their ideology and 'system'.

I personally do not see the capture or death of senior TNSM leadership as anything significant in terms of combating the Taliban threat.

The real danger is from men like Ibn-e-Amin, Mullah Fazlullah, Hakimullah Mehsud, Qari Hussain, Baitullah Mehsud etc.

 

[waraich66]

The TNSM is not the same as the TTP. This time around at least Sufi did not kil anyone - he ended up being an ineffective and weak interlocutor without any ability to control the TTP and Mullah FM, and the efforts he did make were rather weak.

His pronouncements against democracy and the Pakistani justice system did ironically help solidify Pakistani opposition to the Taliban, their ideology and 'system'.

I personally do not see the capture or death of senior TNSM leadership as anything significant in terms of combating the Taliban threat.

He is ex JI worker , belong to idealogy of JI and Al Qaeada and have their full support.

They have madrasah students in millions in part of Pakistan, army could not control this Tsunami , a similar satuation of iranian revolution could develop in Pakistan.

The real danger is from men like Ibn-e-Amin, Mullah Fazlullah, Hakimullah Mehsud, Qari Hussain, Baitullah Mehsud etc.

We have to counter their idealogy of movement , which is more dangerous.

 

[TruthSeeker]

This is BS! I thought they arrested the guy and were gonna punish him!

I think they should kill the man for the countless that he has killed, we want him put down like the dog he is.

Yo, Coolyo! Don't you want him sent to the ISI area of Gitmo?

 

[Slides]

Sufi is irrelevant now.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Sufi Mohammad is history: govt

DAWN.COM | Provinces | Sufi Mohammad is history: govt

Wednesday, 08 Jul, 2009 | 05:12 AM PST |

PESHAWAR: NWFP Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain has said that Maulana Sufi Mohammad, chief of banned Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi, is history and media should not project him.

‘Let Sufi Mohammad be history. His popularity graph has declined and people of Malakand will not trust him anymore,’ the minister said while speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday.

When asked about the release of Sufi Mohammad, Mian Iftikhar said that government had neither arrested him nor knew about his whereabouts. ‘Media should not disturb Sufi as he has become history,’ he remarked.

He said that militants were on the run in Malakand and they were not in a position to establish even contact with each other.