Share this story!            

Jailed TNSM chief admitted to Peshawar hospital

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: Jailed chief of the defunct Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi (TNSM), Maulana Sufi Muhammad, was admitted to hospital on Friday after he reported problems with high blood pressure and high sugar levels, a prison official said.

“He has been admitted to Hayatabad Medical Complex from Dera Ismail Khan prison where doctors are examining him,” the official told Daily Times, requesting not to be named. “He is very weak and we want to provide him a detailed check-up.”

NWFP caretaker Home Minister Shehzada Gustasip said the maulana was brought to Peshawar for a medical check-up as a “goodwill gesture” from the government. However, he denied that the TNSM chief’s presence in Peshawar meant that he could be set free to play a role in countering rebel Swat cleric Maulana Fazlullah.

“There is no such game plan,” Gustasip told Daily Times.

Maulana Fazlullah is the son-in-law of Sufi Muhammad, who led an uprising against the government in the early 1990s to demand the enforcement of Islamic laws in Swat and Malakand.

The banned TNSM chief is regarded as “ultra-conservative” and “inflexible” towards compromising his stand on the enforcement of Shariah, and some security officials had suggested that he be released to counter Maulana Fazlullah, a plan that has not received broad approval.

The TNSM chief has been serving a prison term since 2001 after he was found guilty, on several counts, for providing Islamic volunteers to the Taliban to fight against the US-backed Northern Alliance.

Home | National

Share this story!