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Pakistani Police Arrest 200 Activists Of Sunni Muslim Group
CAIRO & ISLAMABAD, Feb 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Pakistani police have arrested around 200 activists of an Islamic group, Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), one week before the scheduled execution of one of its supporters over an Iranian diplomat's assassination.
Police detained SSP head Azam Tariq from the group's headquarters in the Punjab provincial town of Jhang, they said.
"The crackdown was launched on late Friday to preempt any unrest" over SSP activist Haq Nawaz's hanging, said an anonymous senior police officer stating police conducted raids in key cities of Lahore, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi, Faislabad, Multan and Bahawalpur.
"So far about 200 people have been detained" in central Punjab, he said.
SSP spokesman Mujibur Rehman Inquilabi said police "had netted" more than 300 party workers and supporters across the province.
"Our entire leadership of Lahore district has been arrested," a SSP activist, who has gone underground to escape arrest, told Dawn, a Pakistani daily.
In Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the majority of SSP workers have already gone underground. "We have directed our workers throughout the province to go into hiding," one activist said.
Nawaz was condemned to death over the December 19, 1990, murder of Iranian cultural center director Sadiq Ganji in Lahore.
President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar rejected a mercy petition and the convict is to be sent to the gallows in Punjab's Mianwali jail Wednesday morning, press reports said.
Nawaz's execution, earlier scheduled in January, was delayed after he launched a review petition in the Supreme Court challenging his conviction.
The top court confirmed the conviction ordered by the Lahore High Court in 1999.
Hundreds of people, including some Iranian nationals and senior clerics from the minority Shiite and the majority Sunni Muslim communities, have died in clashes between Sunni and Shiite activists, mostly in Punjab over the past several years.
Pakistani police have blamed activists from the SSP and its rival Shiite organization, the Tehreek-i-Jafria Pakistan (TJP), for the escalation of violent attacks.
Nevertheless, both organizations have denied any involvement in violent attacks, blaming unidentified foreign involvement for the killings.
Government officials in Jhang confirmed the arrest of Tariq but claimed that he was taken in "protective custody" due to "risk to his life", the Internet edition of Dawn reported.
When contacted from Islamabad to confirm Tariq's arrest, Superintendent Police Jhang, Tariq Masood Yasin said: "It's premature to say anything at this stage, ... I can't comment."
"I think we are in the process of certain things, after which we will decide what to do," he remarked, adding, "I can't say anything... if you call me tomorrow morning I might be able to tell you."
Meanwhile, violence erupted in the Pakistani industrial city of Gujranwala Thursday after the murder of a prominent Shiite Muslim in a suspected sectarian killing, police said.
"Shabbir was killed because he was a prominent Shiite leader. This murder is clearly sectarian," district police chief Pervez Lodhi said.
Most of the Shiite victims have affiliations with the TJP party, while others have been linked to Iranian missions here.
Hundreds of people, most of them Shiites, have been murdered in religious violence in Pakistan in recent years but police often failed to catch the killers. The Shiite community frequently blames members of the Lashar-e-Jhangvi, a hardline Sunni group, for the attacks.
Shiite Muslims form about 20% of Pakistan's Sunni-dominated 140 million people.
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