Sufi Mohammad had gone missing ever since the Pakistani army launched its ground offensive against the Taliban in the country's troubled northwest. Speaking about the details of Mohammad's arrest, Shafiq Ahmed, a senior journalist from Peshawar said he was arrested on the pressure of the international community and the local civil society organisations. "He was caught on camera by a local television when he was heading a meeting in Peshawar, this exposed the Sufi Mohammad's hideout in Peshawar and later on the Peshawar police was forced to take action against him."

Regrouping Taliban

Sufi Mohammad had successfully brokered a deal between the government and the Taliban earlier this year. He demanded Sharia law in the Malakand division in return for disarming the Taliban. But Mohammad failed to deliver on his promise, and the Taliban only grew stronger after the deal and started moving towards the neighbouring Buner district.

Mohammad was arrested in 2002 following his return from Afghanistan. Author of "Inside Al Qaeda", Rohan Gunaratna said, "Sufi Mohammed went to Afghanistan with several hundred Taliban members from Swat and other areas and he fought against the US and the other coalition forces that were in Afghanistan. When he returned, the Pakistan government arrested him simply because he had taken several hundreds of Pakistani youth to Afghanistan."

He was released last year on a condition that he would renounce violence.

Mohammad currently leads Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammedi, or the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law.

Probe underway

Reza ul Laskar, a senior journalist from Islamabad said that the charges against Mohammed have not yet been ascertained. "Interior minister Rehman Malik has said that Sufi Mohammed will be interrogated by top officials of intelligence and the security agencies and the North West Frontier government has said that it is also conducting a probe into his activities and once that probe is completed there will be cases filed against him, Reza added.

Mohammad is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, the head of the Taliban in the northwest Swat Valley, who is still on the run. The army had claimed that Fazlullah was severely injured in one of the raids, which was later rubbished by the Taliban spokesperson.

Similarity with Afghan Taliban

Sufi Mohammad was initially with Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the main political parties in Pakistan, but after deciding to form his own organisation, he decided to break away from the Jamaat-e- Islami in 1992. Talking about the nature of Mohammad's party, Rohan Gunaratna said, "Just before the Taliban period in Pakistan there was only Afghan Taliban but he built an organisation that resembled at that time the Afghan Taliban and today it’s a classic Taliban type organisation driven by the Deobandi Ideology and what happened was he preached a very political form of Islam."

Sufi Mohammad’s arrest comes at a crucial time when the Pakistani army claims to be in the last stage of its offensive against the Taliban in Swat and says at least 1,800 Taliban fighters have been killed in this offensive.

Author: Pukhraj Choudhary
Editor: Disha Uppal/Pia Chandavarkar