Sunni-Shi’ite Jihad Update — this time, outside of Iraq — from the Khaleej Times: “New militant group targeting Shi’ites in Pakistan”
ISLAMABAD — Security agencies have expressed the apprehension that a new militant group has emerged threatening Shia leaders.
According to investigators inquiring into the assassination of Shia leader Allama Hassan Turabi, Pukhtoon militants who fought against the US-led invasion of Afghanistan have formed a new anti-Shia militant group.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials had learnt of the new group from interrogations of three men arrested for suspicion of involvement in the prominent Shia cleric’s murder in Karachi. The FIA team, headed by its director general, Tariq Pervaiz, has sent a report to the Interior Ministry detailing its findings.
The suspects — Sultan Mehmood alias Saifullah and Muslim, Mohammad Amin alias Khalid and Abdullah, and Mohammad Rehman alias Mani — told investigators the group was planning suicide attacks against Shia leaders, says the report.
The new militant group is led by Mufti Ilyas and Hazrat Ali of Darra Adam Khel. Its members include men who fought against US forces in Afghanistan, and have links with Abdullah Mehsud, the militant leader responsible for the attack on Chinese engineers at the Gomal Zam Dam site, and other militants from Waziristan and
Afghanistan. It also includes some women members. The report says that the new group has no links with any other militant organisation.