Turabi was a former leading figure of al-Beshir's regime

KHARTOUM, April 2 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Sudanese authorities Friday, April 2, stepped up their campaign against the main opposition Popular Congress (PC) party, hours after suspending the party and charging its leader Hassan al-Turabi with damaging the country's security.

The head of Turabi's offices, Awad Babikir, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) late Thursday, April 1, that police shut the headquarters of his PC party in Khartoum as well as most of its branches across Sudan.

Sudan's ruling National Congress (NC) party accused the PC of planning attacks and assassinations with the help of renegade military officers and using air force aircraft, according to AFP.

Official Omdurman radio repeatedly broadcast an NC statement, also carried by Khartoum dailies, directed at the PC of Hassan al-Turabi, who was arrested on Wednesday along with other party officials.

The ruling party accused the PC of plotting "criminal acts of sabotage" through political and military figures, "led by a colonel from the air force."

It alleged that the aim was to "blow up landmark strategic national institutions, including the Al-Jaily refinery, Qarry power station, the armed forces headquarters and Giad Industrial City, using the air force" planes.

The statement, reported to have been issued after a lengthy meeting of the ruling party, also said "high-ranking" personalities in the government and society had been marked for assassination or kidnap.

It said this "would have created widespread chaos resulting in general disorder and panic, instability and insecurity of the people and the country, if not for God's mercy and the vigilance of the military and security organs."

The NC said confessions by the suspects would soon be made public to the people of Sudan and to the world.

It called on Sudanese to maintain "vigilance and readiness in protection of your safety and the security of your installations and maintenance of the unity of your country which is on the threshold of achieving peace, the greatest accomplishment since independence."

According to the Associated Press (AP), Abdallah Hassan Ahmed, assistant secretary-general of the PC, said Thursday the registrar of political parties told him of the suspension.

The registrar told Ahmed the suspension was based on a law that prevents political parties from involvement in any use of force or violence, the AP added.

At least one party activist was also arrested, bringing to 14 the number of PC members known to have been arrested in three days.

Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Husseinin told the independent Al-Sahafa daily that Turabi would stand trial on charges of "instigating tribal and regional sedition and harming security."

Under Sudan's penal code, Turabi, 72, who was arrested at his home early Wednesday, could face up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

A former leading figure of President Omar al-Beshir's regime, Turabi was freed in October 2003 after spending nearly three years under house arrest.

Husseinin played down the controversy stirred by the arrest of Turabi and army officers thought to belong to his PC. "This does not impair the stability of the country," he insisted.

Information Minister Al-Zahaw Ibrahim Malik said Wednesday that Turabi was arrested for making statements in which he "incited regionalist and tribal tendencies" against the government.

The move followed the arrest Sunday of a number of army officers on suspicion of involvement in a military coup attempt apparently related to the ongoing conflict in the western Darfur region.

The PC Monday reported a government crackdown on senior party officials following allegations of a coup attempt from within the army.

The authorities then launched a wave of arrests against party officials and axed or transferred a raft of officers in the army, police and security services who originated from Darfur, the Islamic group added in a statement.

The PC spoke of 27 army officers arrested, all from the western provinces of Darfur and Kordofan, But Malik only confirmed the arrest of 10 army officers, including a colonel, and seven PC members.

He said these officers had been kept under surveillance since 2002 and were "planning, in coordination with the Popular Congress, acts of subversion".

Turabi himself told AFP Tuesday that the government has accused his party of supporting the year-old rebel movement among Darfur's indigenous non-Arab minorities.

Turabi denied the government allegation, although he has criticized government policy in the region.

Indirect negotiations began Wednesday in neighboring Chad between the government and the Darfur's rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Movement for Justice and Equality (MJE).