Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan

Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) is a Sunni Deobandi banned terrorist Pakistani organization, and a formerly registered Pakistani political party. Established in the early 1980s in Jhang by Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, its stated goal is to primarily to deter major Shiite influence in Pakistan in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The organization was banned by President Pervez Musharraf in 2002 as a terrorist organization under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997. Currently the organization's official name is Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, but it is still widely referred to as Sipah-e-Sahaba by its own members. In March 2012 the government of Pakistan banned Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat.

Ideology
The SSP follows the Deobandi school of Sunni Islam. It wishes for Pakistan to be a Sunni state and has declared Shiites non-Muslims and promotes the killing and genocide of Shias by any means. The organization also calls for a restoration of the Khilafat. and a sunni only state of Pakistan where all other religions and sects to be classed as second class citizen with no rights to take part in politics to form government and to gain prominent posisitions.

History
Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi, Maulana Eesar-ul-Haq Qasmi and Maulana MuhammadAzam Tariq formed the SSP in 1985 originally under the name of Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba (ASSP), or Army of the Friends of the Prophet. Abbas Yazdani, head of the antagonist Shia Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan, mockingly referred to the ASSP as Sipah-e Yazid, comparing them to the historical archenemy of the Shia.

An SSP leader was a minister in the Coalition Government in Punjab in 1993 and the group has held seats in the Pakistan National Assembly.

When Jhangvi was martyred in 1990, Zia-ur Rehman Farooqi assumed leadership of the group. Farooqi died in a bomb explosion on January 19, 1997 at the Lahore Sessions Court. After his death, Azam Tariq led the group until October 2003 when he was killed by gunmen.

In January 2002, the SSP was among five groups banned under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.

In 2003, the organization was reestablished under the Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan but was again banned in November of that year.

In August 2009 Maulana Ali Sher Hyderi, the fourth chief of SSP, was killed by Tehreek-e-Jafaria extremists while traveling by car through Khairpur district in Sindh province en route to Hyderabad.

Another leader Abdul Rauf was killed by extremists in February or March 2010.

Sipah-e-Sahaba currently operates openly under the adopted name of Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat.

Notable incidents
Moulana Saleem Qadri,Founder of Sunni Tehreek was killed by the terrorists of Sipah-e-Sahaba in 2001. In April 2006 a grand Barelvi congregation celebrating the birthday of Muhammad on Eid Milad un Nabi was suicide-bombed. Out of the 1,500 that had gathered, 57 died and over 100 were injured. The attackers were identified as members of the hardline Sunni sectarian group, Sipah-e-Sahaba. They believe celebration of the prophet's birthday is a sin.

According to Shahbaz Bhatti, the federal minister for minorities in Pakistan, the August 2009 Gojra riots against Pakistan's Christian minority were organized and perpetrated by Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan. Police arrested more than 65 people for their alleged involvement in the violence. The arrested men include Qari Abdul Khaliq Kashmiri, a leader of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.

In June 2010, Sipah-e-Sahaba was linked to sectarian violence in Karachi, where clashes followed a rally held by organizers of the banned group. According to Shiite cleric Allama Abbas Komaili, at least nine Shias were killed within two weeks of unrest, while a local leader of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat was also gunned down.

Links to other groups

 * In 1996 elements within the SSP who did not believe the organization violent enough left to form the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ). In February 2003, Azam Tariq denied accusations that LJ was its armed militant branch and emphasized that the SSP "had nothing to do" with the LJ.
 * In October 2000 Maulana Masood Azhar, founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), was quoted as saying that "Sipah-e-Sahaba stands shoulder to shoulder with Jaish-e-Muhammad in Jehad." A leaked U.S. diplomatic cable described JeM as "another SSP breakaway Deobandi organization."
 * A diplomatic cable, originally dated October 23, 2009 and later leaked to the media, from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad indicated that Qari Hussain, a leading militant of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), had roots in the SSP and that "many of the TTP’s foot soldiers are from SSP ranks."