Sipah-e-Mohammed Pakistan

Sipah-e-Mohammed Pakistan (SMP) literally meaning ‘Army of Muhammad’ refers to a Shia group which is reportedly involved in sectarian terrorist activity primarily in Pakistani Punjab. The exact date of formation of the SMP is not certain. But it is generally believed that Maulana Mureed Abbas Yazdani created the outfit in 1993 after he was convinced that the predominant Shia organisation, Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP) would not allow its young cadre to physically counter the Sunni militancy of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). The Shia youth had been urging the TJP leadership to take notice of the alleged excesses of the SSP whose members were alleged to be targeting Shia's and their beliefs.

The phase following the October 1999 military coup in Pakistan saw a decline in sectarian violence. In February 2001, at a meeting of the Milli Yekjehti Council (MYC*), the SMP and the SSP announced their willingness to shun all differences and to withdraw cases against each other. Meanwhile, several Shia organisations have been petitioning the government for the release of SMP chief Ghulam Raza Naqvi, though the government is yet to respond.

Even as these apparent gestures towards peace are made, the SMP was suspected to involved in the attack on an SSP controlled mosque in which nine worshippers were killed and 12 others injured on March 12, 2001. Earlier, in February 2001, the SMP was reported to have sought membership in the Grand Democratic Alliance, formed to launch a movement for restoration of democracy in Pakistan.

Estimated to have a cadre base of 30000 Shia followers, the outfit also maintains close links with the Shia regime in Iran. This connection led to the assassination of Iran’s Counsel General in Lahore, Sadeq Ganji, in December 1990 by suspected Sunni terrorists. The assassination was apparently a reprisal for the murder in February that year of SSP founder, Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. Similarly, soon after a bomb explosion at a Lahore court in January 1997 in which the then SSP chief, Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi was killed along with 29 others, an Iranian diplomat Muhammad Ali Rahimi was killed in Multan in the same month. The Iranian Cultural Centre in Lahore too was attacked and burnt down in that month. Besides, five personnel of the Iranian armed forces who were in Pakistan for training were murdered in September that year.

In 1996, a faction of the SMP cadres opposed their chief Maulana Yazdani for his conciliatory attitude towards the MYC which to them amounted to a compromise on their faith and fundamental beliefs. The present Saalar-i-Aala ('commander') of the SMP Ghulam Raza Naqvi reportedly ordered the assassination of Maulana Yazdani, which was executed in September 1996. Another faction was formed under the leadership of Major (Retd.) Ashraf Ali Shah in 1996 and confronted Ghulam Naqvi’s group which led to internecine clashes.

Ghulam Naqvi, had, in 1996, ensured that the outfit had its headquarters, Thokar Niaz Beg, a village in Lahore, completely under their control and impossible for security agencies to penetrate. Following the factional clashes, the SMP commander was forced to flee and was later arrested by police in December 1996. The year also saw the broadening target base of sectarian terrorists with several bureaucrats being attacked and killed including the Commissioner of Sargodha and the deputy commissioner of Khanewal.