Court order sheet corrected: TNSM chief Sufi Mohammad is a free man once again

PESHAWAR: Maulana Sufi Mohammad, chief of the banned Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) on Monday received a release order from the Central Prison Peshawar after approval of his bail bonds.

The ailing 93 years old cleric hailing from Lower Dir district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was released after eight years.The Peshawar High Court had on January 8 issued release order of Sufi Muhammad, but it was delayed due to some errors in the court’s release order and also due to preparation of the required documents.

Sufi Muhammad was recently shifted amid tight security from the jail to a rest house in Peshawar due to his illness.Fazlullah Farooq, son of Sufi Muhammad, on Monday confirmed to The News that he had received the release order of his father from the Central Prison Peshawar.

He said that a few days ago their family shifted Sufi Muhammad to the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar for treatment as he had prostrate problem. He said his father would leave the hospital on the advice of doctors.

Fida Gul, the legal counsel for Sufi Muhammad, said the high court had corrected the order sheet as two sections 120-B and 122-A had not been added to it. He added that one first information report (FIR) date had been wrongly mentioned as it was June 18, 1995 and in the order it was July 2009.

Sources told The News that Sufi Muhammad’s release was ensured after it was agreed that he would not speak against the state, Constitution and law-enforcement agencies. The government did not challenge the release order.

Currently, his lawyer said, Sufi Muhammad was facing trial in two cases registered in Swat district including one in 2009 and the other in 1995.

A single-member bench of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth had accepted two petitions filed by Maulana Sufi Mohammad, who has been imprisoned since July 2009, with the direction to furnish two surety bonds of Rs700,000 each in the two cases. The Maulana is accused of committing sedition, waging war against Pakistan and several other offences.

His lawyer, Fida Gul, said that apart from these two cases the petitioner had already been acquitted or granted bail in 11 other cases.One FIR was registered on July 30, 2009, after the final phase of the military operation was launched in Swat and other parts of Malakand division for dislodging militants of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

After the operation was launched in May 2009, Sufi Muhammad had started residing at Sethi Town, Peshawar, with his family and was arrested from there with histhree sons. The first case against Sufi Muhammad was registered at Saidu Sharif Police Station concerning a public meeting that he had addressed on April 19, 2009 after the TNSM entered into a peace

agreement with the ANP-PPP coalition government in Khyber Pakhtun-khwa.

Sufi Muhammad was charged with sedition as he had termed the government, Constitution of Pakistan and the judicial system un-Islamic. He had also allegedly criticised the state of Pakistan.

The TNSM chief was charged under Sections 120-B (hatching criminal conspiracy), 121-A (waging war against Pakistan), 124-A (sedition), 148 and 149 (rioting) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The other case was registered at Swat’s Kabal Police Station in June 1995 when Maulana Sufi Muhammad and his supporters tried to impose ‘Shariah’ through the use of force in Malakand division. The Maulana was charged under Sections 121 and 121-A (war against Pakistan), 324 (attempted murder) 341 (wrongful restraint) and 353 (obstructing public servant) of the IPC.

Previously, Maulana Sufi was arrested on November 20, 2001 in Kurram Agency when he was returning from Afghanistan where he had gone along with thousands of his supporters to wage “holy war” against US forces.

He was released in April 2008 when the the ANP-led provincial government entered into a peace deal with the TNSM in which the latter disassociated itself from attacks on security forces and government installations and promised to help it in restoring the writ of the state there.

However, Sufi Muhammad was arrested again after failure of the peace deal and the launching of the military operation in Malakand division. The government also restored

the old cases against him and his followers.