The Federal Interior Ministry on Saturday banned four religio-political organisations for their involvement in sectarian clashes and terrorism in the country. The banned organisations are Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, formerly known as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, Shia Talba Tanzeem, Karachi-based People’s Aman Committee, a wing of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and Tehreek-e-Naujawan Ahle-Sunnat, Gilgit.
A senior official of the Interior ministry told Pakistan Today that a notification had been issued to the authorities of all four provinces, including Gilgit and Baltistan. He said that the decision to ban these organisations was taken in the backdrop of the recent terrorist attack in Kohistan that left 18 Shias dead. Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat Chairman Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi condemned the ban, saying that the government had banned his group at the behest of the USA. He said that for the last six months, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat had been drawing people’s attention to the country’s defence from the platform of Difa-e-Pakistan Council, which may have irked Washington.
