Express Tribune: Sectarian groups in Pakistan have grown ‘stronger than ever’ and pose a grave threat to state and society, according to an assessment carried out by the country’s intelligence services.
A report of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has warned that organisations such as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Jundallah are more powerful than in the ‘80s and ‘90s when they wreaked havoc across the country through sectarian attacks.
“Even today they pose a challenge as big as al Qaeda and they are getting more powerful. Imagine where they will be in a couple of years,” said an official who was a member of the IB team that prepared the report.
The report contains information on SSP, LeJ and associated groups and individuals outside Pakistan after monitoring their activities for several months.
Some of the contents of the report were shared with The Express Tribune, which stated that the SSP and LeJ had already extended their network outside their traditional strongholds in South Punjab, southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Pakhtun belt of Balochistan, including Quetta.