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Banned SSP gets new name, gets back to work

* Urges Sunnis to close businesses on 27th to mark Hazrat Abu Bakar (RA)’s martyrdom

By Fareed Farooqui

KARACHI: The banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) has once again rolled up its sleeves and started getting active across Pakistan, and especially in Karachi, but with a new name Ahle Sunnat wa Aljamaat Pakistan (ASWJP) which roughly translates into The Sunni Party.

It has started by requesting Sunni people to voluntarily shut down their businesses and offices on Youm-e-Shahdat (the day of martyrdom) of Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique (RA) on the 22nd of Jumadi-Uthani, June 27. Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique (RA) was one of the closest companions of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). He was also the first Caliph in Madina when the first Islamic government was established.

The central information secretary of the SSP and ASWJP, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, told Daily Times on Tuesday that they had started work in the name of the ASWJP because of the ban on the SSP. “The case against the ban is in court,” he added.

The ASWJP has planned programs across the country, including Karachi city, on Youm-e-Siddique-e-Akbar (RA). Instructions have been given its activists.

Maulana Nadeem said that Sunni people should put up signs at their workplaces saying, ‘The shop/office is closed on 22 Jumadi-Uthani (June 27) on Youm-e-Siddique-e-Akbar (RA)’. The party has started distributing handbills among people and letters to business communities and traders. They have, Maulana Nadeem added, assured us that the shops and offices would be closed on June 27.

A central ‘Siddique-e-Akbar Conference’ would be organized on June 26 after Isha prayers at Qayumabad by the SSP and ASWJP where the chief of the ASWJP, Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi, and others would address the audience.

A ‘Siddique-e-Akbar (RA) rally’ would be organized on June 27 after Jumma prayers from Lasbela to Numaish Chowrangi. The SSP was banned in 2002 by the government and most of its leaders were arrested. The leaders were released in 2003-04 and started limited work under ASWJP. It organized a rally in April 2008 in Karachi after surfacing after six years.

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