Due to security reasons and Taliban's threats, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to hold the trial of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Mohammad and 10 other alleged key terrorists in the Central Prison in Peshawar. The provincial home department has reviewed its first decision to produce Sufi Mohammad and other key terrorists in Swat Anti-Terrorism Court, said an official. The home department has approved the trial of Sufi Mohammad and other suspected key terrorists by an anti-terrorism-court judge in the prison, he said adding that the trial in various cases would start on July 20. Sufi Mohammad is facing charges of sedition, conspiring against the state and encouraging terrorism. There are also a host of other charges against him including murder. The jailed TNSM chief considered the courts presided over by judicial officers as un-Islamic. He wanted to replace these courts with his own style of Shariah courts in the Malakand division, which comprises seven districts including Swat. In this attempt, thousands of his followers resorted to violence in 1994. They held control of several government installations and murdered an MP Badiuzzaman in early November 1994, besides killing several others. – SG The violent movement could not change much, except renaming the courts as Qazi courts. The judicial officers under the old laws continued to function.
