Sautul Ummat, a splinter of proscribed Hizbul Tehrir, is fast emerging as a new terror threat in Pakistan, officials said.
Sautul Ummat, a splinter of proscribed Hizbul Tehrir, is fast emerging as a new terror threat in Pakistan, officials said.
The terror group was trying to get the franchise of Al Qaeda and its affiliate Jabhat al Nusra in Pakistan, the officials said.
Since the action against militancy picked up pace in the country, main terrorist outfits have broken up and new groups like Sautul Ummat surfaced.
The offshoot of Hizbul Tehrir seeks to bring a bloody revolution like Al-Qaeda and Nusra. The group was involved in small incidents of terror when some of its sleeper cells were busted.
It was involved in firing at media houses and cracker attacks on law enforcers in Karachi and Lahore. The same group was also involved in pasting of their flag posters in the provincial capitals of Punjab and Sindh similar to Nusra and the Islamic State (ISIS).
This was the reason behind news concerning emergence of the ISIS in two major cities of the country. Nusra is believed to be more ruthless than Daesh and is making some inroads in neighbouring Afghanistan.
“Sautul Ummat like its mother organisation Hizbul Tehrir focuses on educated middle and lower middle class and wants to overthrow the existing system through violent means. It does not believe in democracy and declares the existing system as the governance of Satan (devil),” said a security official. “In the course of interrogations it was revealed that members of Tehrir’s splinter contacted Al Qaeda and its affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra to get their flag in Pakistan for acquiring their fear power and financial support as well as training,” he added.
During the raids, initially it appeared from the literature in militants’ possession and the modus oprendi as if they were affiliated with Tahrir. But some information acquired from their desktop computers and laptops revealed their affiliation to Sautul Ummat.
However, Ummat members have also been interrogated on the lines that they may be still part of the Tehrir and preparing themselves to become a lethal militant wing with the aim of Ummat being the military and Tahrir being the political faces of the one and same organisation, added the officials. The Ummat like its parent organisation is very secretive in its real operations and did not let any new member in the inner circle without thorough and proper screening. Reaching out to Al-Qaeda and its affiliate Nusra is one of the reasons for getting financial support, the officials said.
