Sharia here, in the country, in the world

Can TNSM stage a comeback with a vengeance as claimed by its cadres?

By Arif Jamal

"We will eliminate the Jamaat-i-Islami from our area and impose the real Islam. You will see that we succeed this time," Sufi Ahmed (not his real name) told me as our jeep approached Dir/Malakand. Sufi Ahmed is a young and budding leader of the banned Tehreek-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM). Sufi Ahmed recently took me to Malakand and adjoining areas to show that TNSM is alive and once again regrouping. He says TNSM is going to stage a comeback, in the not too distant future, with a vengeance.

A few minutes later, he took out his walkie-talkie and told his comrades about our arrival. Mobile telephones do not work where we were. "Are you allowed to use walkie-talkie?" I asked him in utter bewilderment. "Who is anybody to allow or disallow us to use this? We believe only in sharia. Does sharia forbids this?" he ruefully answered. "Your laws are un-Islamic. We are struggling to replace them with true sharia. If the Jamaat-i-Islami had not played tricks with us, we would have succeeded in having sharia laws in this area by now."

"Do you want to come into power or impose sharia?" I asked him after a short pause. "We want to see the imposition of sharia here and in the rest of the country and the rest of the world," he took a long breath and added, "The Jamaat-i-Islami wants to come into power in Islamabad. They are even ready to accept the American [brand of] Islam." He turned his face towards me and said, "The true Islamic forces would never let the Jamaat-i-Islami come into power. They understand this and that is why they want every true Islamic force eliminated."

The TNSM cadres and leaders bitterly blame the Jamaat-i-Islami for all their problems since October 2001 when the latter, as TNSM alleges, lured them to cross into Afghanistan and wage jihad against the invading American forces. That is when the fortunes were reversed for TNSM. Soon after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in September 2001, most of the Islamist and jihadist parties agitated against the coming American attack on Afghanistan. The TNSM was in the forefront of agitation in their region. Sufi Mohammad led thousands of his followers to Afghanistan where most of them died. Some of them were arrested by the new Afghan government. The Pakistani government banned the group and arrested Sufi Mohammad on his return. A special court sentenced the founding amir of TNSM, Maulana Sufi Mohammad and 30 others to seven years for leading thousands of his followers to Afghanistan in spite of government restrictions.

TNSM came into being in 1989 with the nomination of Sufi Mohammad as its amir. The emergence of TNSM was a direct consequence of the jihad in Afghanistan. The region of Dir/Malakand division where TNSM became popular in the beginning abuts the province of Kunar in Afghanistan. The salafist Jamatud Dawah of Afghanistan, led by Shaikh Jamilur Rehman, had been trying to set up some sort of an Islamic state in Kunar. His group was also applying Islamic punishments in the Afghan province of Kunar. Moreover, Shaikh Jamilur Rehman had set up his group's headquarters in the Bajaur Agency. Shaikh Jamilur Rehman set up a chain of some 250 madrassas for Afghan students. At the same time, he encouraged the Pakistani children to attend those madrassas. The success of the Afghan jihad greatly encouraged the people to demand the imposition of sharia in their region as well. This explains why Sufi Mohammad uses salafist jargon although he himself was trained by the Jamaat-i-Islami.

The most important demand of this new group was the imposition of sharia in the Malakand division. Maulana Sufi Mohammad started his Islamist politics as a member of the Jamaat-i-Islami but left it in 1981 and renounced electoral politics. He declared that the politics of elections was haram (forbidden under Islamic law). He also declared that the religious parties, which take part in elections, were also un-Islamic. TNSM has been waging an unrelenting struggle for the imposition of sharia in the Malakand division. In 1990, they announced that they had imposed the Islamic law and forbade the people from going to courts of law. As TNSM grew in numbers and influence, they started using violence for the acceptance of their demand. In one instance, tens of thousands of its followers blocked the highway for nearly one week. Under their growing pressure, the NWFP governor imposed sharia in the Malakand division in May 1994 through an ordinance.

However, the ordinance could not come into operation even after the passage of four months. This provoked the TNSM cadres and they agitated all over the division, provoking widespread agitation. The group started kidnapping government officials. During one such violent agitation, they even occupied the airport and other government buildings. They even killed Member of Provincial Assembly Badiuz Zaman. The government also promised to impose sharia law in other parts of the area as well. The rebellion was brought under control after the loss of a number of lives.

Like many other Islamist parties, TNSM, which had established close links with the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, pledged to go and wage jihad against the Americans in Afghanistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. However, it was only TNSM that went to Afghanistan with all fanfare. To their total surprise, the Taliban refused to welcome them and asked them to return to Pakistan after handing their weapons over to them. In the meanwhile, the American warplanes started carrying out air strikes against the al-Qaeda and their hosts, the Taliban. The Taliban, who had some sort of plan to escape the bombardments, disappeared and left the TNSM cadres to suffer heavy casualties.

The TNSM leaders and cadres allege that they went into Afghanistan expecting the Jamaat-i-Islami to follow them. But, the Jamaat-i-Islami only wanted them to go and face the Americans. When the Americans annihilated TNSM in Afghanistan, the Jamaat-i-Islami must have been too happy on seeing two of their rivals being removed from the regional scene, said Ahmed with some justification. Their second rival was the Taliban Islamic movement, which had snatched victory from their jaws.