Military Periscope :: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP)

Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP)

Group Name:

Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP); also known as Millat-e-Islamia/Pakistan and Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama'at Pakistan

Location/Area of Operation:

Pakistan

Stated Purpose:

Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) is a religiously motivated Sunni terrorist organization that seeks a Sunni-run state. Secondarily, the group seeks to have the Shia branch of Islam declared illegitimate. More recently, the group has declared its opposition to the U.S.-Pakistan alliance against the Sunni-supported Taliban in Afghanistan.

Strength:

Estimated to have a 6,000-member militant force and popular support of 10,000 or more.

External Aid and Links:

Sunni and SSP sympathizers in Saudi Arabia have provided financial support for the organization. This support appears to have dwindled by late 2006. SSP has affiliated with other militant organizations in Pakistan and has had significant contact with the Taliban.

Activities:

The SSP has engaged in assassinations of leading Shi'ite Muslims through targeted attacks. The group has also indiscriminately killed Shi'ites worshipping at mosques. The group has taken part in political activities and elections as a religiously oriented party. The group has promoted its objectives and philosophy by establishing madrassas concentrating on religious indoctrination.

Overview:

The Sipah-e Sahaba (SSP) was formally established in 1985 in Pakistan's central Punjab province. SSP is rooted in the culture of Islam and the sectarian strife related to differences among Islamists over the successor to the prophet Mohammed. These centuries-old disputes were re-kindled as recently as 1985 and 1990 in statements issued by SSP leaders.

While the Sunni population of Pakistan is close to 80 percent, minority Shia landowners controlled large segments of agricultural property, especially in Punjab. This has been used to agitate Sunnis. Moreover, with the ascendency of Shia clerics in Iran during that country's Islamic revolution in 1979, Sunnis in Pakistan and elsewhere became even more concerned about the potential threat of Shi'ites.

SSP maintained a political role through a seat on Punjab's coalition government. The SSP allegedly murdered hundreds of Shi'ites, while occasionally issuing denials of its terrorist activities. Some attacks and murders attributed to SSP appeared to have been revenge killings for Shia attacks on Sunni leaders.

Prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Washington may have pushed Pakistan's intelligence service to support the SSP in an effort to counter Shi'ite influence in the region. However, the SSP's reaction to the the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan prompted the Pakistani government to outlaw SSP in 2002, as well as Shi'ite groups involved in sectarian disputes. Many SSP leaders were arrested in 2002 and the group largely entered a dormant phase. These leaders were released during 2003 and 2004, and the group assumed a new name: Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama'at Pakistan.

The group resumed activities in February 2008, apparently in reaction to cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that appeared in Denmark years before and sparked riots in the Muslim world.

The government's ban was not enforced strongly. In 2008 and 2009, the government cracked down harder, and targeted killing of SSP leaders hurt the group.

Group Chronology:

1985

September: The SSP was formed by four Sunni leaders: Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Zia-ur-Rheman Farooqi, Maulan Eesar-ul-Haq Qasmi and Maulana Azam Tariq. The group broke off from Ulema-e-Islam, Pakistan's main Sunni organization, in response to Shi'ite militancy and sectarian violence in Punjab.

1990

February: Shia terrorists killed SSP founder and leader Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi.

December: The SSP assassinated Sadegh Ganji, a well-known Iranian diplomat and head of Iran's cultural center in Lahore. The assassination apparently was committed in retaliation for the murder of SSP's Jhangvi, which was blamed in part on Iran's intelligence service.

1997

January: SSP's armed wing burned down Iran's cultural center in Lahore. During the same month, the SSP assassinated Mohammad Ali Rahimi, Iran's cultural attaché in Multan. In addition, SSP leader Maulan Zia ur Rheman Farooqi was assassinated and Maulana Azam Tariq took over as the head of SSP.

September: Five Iranian air force technicians were killed in Rawalpindi. SSP's militant wing Lashkar i-Jhangvi claimed responsibility.

2001

April: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan sentenced two SSP operatives for killing a former police official and his son in February 2001.

October: SSP leader Syed Paryal Shah said in Khairpur that U.S. action in Afghanistan was not a war against the Taliban but against Islam. Therefore, he said, it was essential for Muslims to declare jihad against the U.S. and its allies.

2002

January: Pakistan's President Pervaiz Musharraf officially declared SSP to be a terrorist organization, whereupon it changed its name to Millat-e-Islamia/Pakistan. Musharraf re-designated the renamed group as a terrorist organization in September 2003.

July: SSP activist Muhammad Aslam Muawia was sentenced to life imprisonment by a special anti-terrorism court in Lahore for the January 1998 Mominpura graveyard massacre in which 27 Shias were killed and 34 injured.

2003

July: Sunni militants, including suicide attackers, killed 50 Shi'ite worshippers at a mosque in Quetta. The SSP-affiliated group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi said three of its suicide attackers were responsible.

October: Three gunmen killed SSP leader Tariq in Islamabad. Tariq had visited Afghanistan often when the Taliban ruled. He favored a ban on music and movies in Pakistan.

2004

Jan. 3: Pakistan security agents in Lahore apprehended six terrorists in connection with the attempted assassination of President Pervaiz Musharraf in December 2003. The terrorists reportedly belonged to the outlawed SSP and JeM groups.

2005

April 15: The government arrested four SSP operatives for their alleged involvement in the bombing of a Shia shrine in the Jhal Magsi district on March 19, in which at least 50 people were killed.

2006

April: SSP activists called for a global caliphate, beginning in Pakistan with an Islamic theocracy. At a demonstration attended by 5,000 SSP sympathizers, former Gen. Zaheerul Islam Abbasi said: "We will start the establishment of Khilafat [Islamic governance] in Pakistan and then will do so across the world."

2007

April: Pakistani intelligence agencies warned that SSP members were planning to break fellow members out of prisons. Reports indicated the group would strike as members were being transferred between jail and court.

2008

Feb. 10: In three separate operations, security forces arrested 40 people suspected of affiliation with banned organizations. The operations were launched after a January 10 suicide attack near the Lahore High Court. An SSP member was said to own one of the facilities. He reportedly escaped.

Feb. 29: SSP held its first major public rally since 2001. Several hundred supporters gathered near SSP headquarters in Karachi to denounce the publication of caricatures of the prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers. The cartoons originally appeared in 2005. The group vowed to conduct jihad against Denmark and the West if the perceived insults continued.

June 24: The SSP, operating under its new name of Ahl-e-Sunnat-Wal-Jama'at Pakistan (ASWJP), urged Sunnis to shut down their businesses and offices on the day marking the martyrdom of an Islamic religious leader.

June 27. A representative of the group, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, said the group's name change to ASWJP took place because of the government's ban of the SSP. He said the ban was being challenged in court.

Nov. 23: The Taliban said its members were in Karachi and had connections with the SSP.

2009

Feb. 2: Unidentified attackers shot and killed Chaudhry Muhammad Yousuf, the former secretary-general and original founder of SSP.

March 16: Police apprehended 12 SSP activists in a crackdown. Raids were conducted in several towns in Kahn.

Aug. 17: Armed attackers killed SSP leader Allama Ali Sher Hyderi and another group member in Sindh province. Police reported that one of the attackers was killed by Hyderei's bodyguards. The killing triggered violence in the Sindh region. Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi succeeded Hydri.

Sept. 1: Police arrested two men suspected of assisting SSP recruitment efforts. Jihadist literature and cell phones were recovered during the arrest. The militants reportedly arranged to bring recruits to a facility in Bhara Kahu for indoctrination. Recruits were then apparently sent to the Waziristan region for terrorist training, including the handling of weapons and suicide bombing.

Oct. 23: Pakistani security forces arrested SSP member Qaisar Mauvia and 60 other suspected militants in a continuing campaign against various terrorist groups. Police said Mauvia was involved in target killing and other illegal activities.

Nov. 23: Gunmen shot and killed Illyas Zubair, a former SSP leader. Zubair and an associate were on their way to a mosque in Karachi at the time. Zubair had been released from prison earlier in the year after serving an eight-year sentence.

Last Updated:

January 2010