Seven militants killed in Mohmand

GHALLANAI: The security forces on Saturday killed at least seven militants in tehsil Yakka Ghund in Mohmand Agency.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the security forces were conducting a search operation in the area when militants opened fire at them.
The security forces retaliated and killed seven terrorists. No security personnel were injured in the clash, the ISPR added.
The unidentified bodies of the terrorists were handed over to the civil administration. — NNI
Javed Aziz Khan adds from Peshawar: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday indicted the chief of the Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) Maulana Sufi Muhammad, his son and others in the anti-state speech case.
The ATC judge Abdul Rauf heard the case at the central prison Peshawar and framed charges against Sufi Muhammad and others. The speech was delivered by him in Timergara in Lower Dir district.
Almost a dozen cases are registered against the TNSM chief who has been behind bars for many years. He was detained by the security forces after the launching of the 2009 military operation in Swat. He has already been acquitted in some other cases.
The first case against the TNSM chief was registered for attacking the Kabal police station in Swat on June 18, 1995 while the second was lodged for delivering an anti-state speech on July 30, 2009.
The TNSM chief was charged in these cases with several sections of the Pakistan Penal Code for collecting arms, attempted murder, waging war against Pakistan, and Section-7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
In fact, a dozen cases had been registered against Maulana Sufi Muhammad under sections 122, 121, 121-A, 148, 149, 186, 324 and 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with sections three and four of the Explosives Act.
The state-hired lawyers defended Maulana Sufi Muhammad in many cases on the direction of the ATC as he had refused to hire a counsel after having declared Pakistan’s judicial system as un-Islamic.
Sufi Muhammad mostly remained behind bars during the last decade as successive governments did not conduct his trial. His sons too were arrested and his house in the Maidan area in Lower Dir was demolished by the security forces.
In 2008, Sufi Muhammad was released from Dera Ismail Khan jail by the ANP-led provincial coalition government.
In 2009, a peace agreement between Maulana Fazlullah and the ANP-led government was made followed by another one with Sufi Muhammad. However, the agreements didn’t work and Sufi Mohammad was arrested and a number of cases were filed against him and some old ones were revived.
The 82-year old Sufi Muhammad had completed his religious education in 1959 from Darul Uloom Haqqania. After abandoning the Jamaat-e-Islami, he had launched the TNSM in June 1989.