File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP
Defense lawyer says chief of the banned Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi is too old to move and suffers from multiple illnesses
The Peshawar High Court on Monday granted bail to the father-in-law of one of Pakistan’s most wanted militants.
Sufi Mohammad, whose son-in-law is Maulana Fazlullah, the fugitive chief of the Pakistani Taliban, was himself charged with murder, treason, terrorism and rebellion. The elderly pro-Taliban cleric and the chief of banned group Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi was the architect of a violent movement for the enforcement of shariah law in the northwestern Malakand Division.
He was arrested in October 2001 as he crossed the border into Pakistan with a group of armed men, accused of sending hundreds to fight against the U.S.-led international forces seeking to topple the fundamentalist Taliban regime. But he was released in 2008 under a peace agreement with local tribal elders, which settled those charges.
Believed to be in his 90s, he was arrested again in Peshawar in 2009 over an inflammatory speech, and has been held in a maximum security prison.
His trial is ongoing. But on Monday his defense lawyer Fida Gul told AFP that a high court in Peshawar had ordered Mohammad’s release. “He was too old to move and was suffering from kidney problems and weakness, and was taken to hospital many times,” Gul said.
The decision came less than a week after the U.S. announced a freeze on aid to Pakistan that could be worth almost $2 billion. The move is designed to force Pakistan’s military and intelligence apparatus to cut support for the Taliban and other Islamist groups, especially those fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has fought fierce campaigns against homegrown Islamist groups, losing thousands of lives in its long war on extremism. That includes the Pakistani Taliban, headed by Mohammad’s son-in-law Fazlullah, who became infamous when he held the Swat Valley from 2007-2009, imposing a harsh brand of shariah law and carrying out public floggings and hangings.