The Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) is a Sunni Islamist militant group that was formed in 1985 to counter Shi'a Muslim influence in Pakistan. It has gone through several name changes due to government bans. The SSP aims to make Pakistan an exclusively Sunni state and considers Shi'as to be non-Muslims. It receives funding from Gulf states and engages in both political and violent activities, especially targeting Pakistan's Shi'a minority.

1. Pakistan religious party
Sipah -e-sahaba
Political science

2. Flag of sipah -e-sahaba paty

3. NAME CHANGES
• 1985: Anjuman-e-Sipah-e-Sahaba. The group's
original name.
• 1989: Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.
• 2002: Millat-e-Islamia Party (MIP). New name after
the SSP was banned
• 2003: Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat. New name after
MIP was banned

4. Introduction
• Earlier termed Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba, the Sipah-e-
Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) is a Sunni sectarian outfit.Haq
Nawaz Jhangvi, Zia-ur-Rehman Farooqi, Eesar-ul-Haq
Qasmi and Azam Tariq, formed the Sipah-e-Sahaba in
1985 originally under the name of Anjuman Sipah-e-
Shaba.
• Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, it aims to counter the Shia
Muslim influence in Pakistan, which is supposed to
have increased in the wake of the Iranian Revolution

5. Conti.......
• The SSP is one of the five outfits that have been
proscribed by President Pervez Musharraf on January
12, 2002. The outfit is reported to have been
renamed as Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan after the
proscription. In March 2012, the government of
Pakistan banned Sipah-e-Sahaba again. The
government of the United Kingdom banned the
group earlier in 2001.
• that has been alleged to be involved in terrorist
violence, primarily targeted against the minority
Shia community in Pakistan.

6. Formation & history
• leader of Sipah-e-Sahaba was a minister in the Coalition
Government in Punjab in 1993 and the group has held
seats in the Pakistan National Assembly.The origin of this
outfit lie in the feudal set-up of Pakistani Punjab and
politico-religious developments in the Nineteen Seventies
and Eighties.
• The group was renamed Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan (Nation
of Islam) in 2002. After the death of Azam Tariq,
Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi was selected as the
president. Its leader (sarparast-aala) Ali Sher Haideri was
killed in an ambush in 2009. Then Muhammad Ahmed
Ludhianvi was selected as sarparast-e-aala while
Auranzeb Farooqi as the president of the organization.

7. Conti.....
• The socio-economic rationale for SSP's origin is
explained largely from the economic profile of
Jhang, the home base of SSP. Located in a region
that divides Central from Southern Pakistani
Punjab, Jhang still has a significantly high
proportion of large land holdings, leaving feudalism
relatively undisturbed. Most large landlords, who
are Shias, dominate both society and politics in the
region.

8. Conti...
• Gradually increasing the power of traders, shopkeepers and
transport operators in the region. Seeking a political voice and
role, this class, largely from the Sunni community, has been
challenging the traditional feudal hold. The most serious
political challenge to the control of feudal interests has been
articulated in the form of violent sectarianism, with the
formation of the SSP. a sizeable proportion of traders and
shopkeepers continue to fund the SSP in Jhang, most do not
believe in the violence associated with the party, rather it is
now a matter of buying security. Nevertheless, there is a
decline in their support for the SSP over recent years as a
result of the economic consequences of sectarian strife.

9. Ideology and Objectives
• The SSP wants Pakistan to be declared a Sunni state.
• It also aims to protect the Sunnis and their Shariat (law).
The SSP has declared that Shiites are non-Muslims
• The SSP came into existence as a reaction to the Iranian
Revolution and increasing Shia militancy in Pakistan.
• There is another school of thought which says that the
SSP phenomenon began from Jhang as a reaction to the
socio-economic repression of the masses by Shia feudal
structure in the area.

10. Conti....
• Giving his reaction to the warning given to the party by
President Pervez Musharraf on August 14, 2001, SSP leader
Maulana Mujibur Rehman Inqilabi said that it had nothing
to do with terrorism and considered it a danger to the
security of the country and people, believing in the
negotiated resolution of all issues
• The SSP also actively opposes the US-Pakistan alliance
formed in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist
attacks on US targets. The alliance was targeted against the
erstwhile Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a major supporter
of Sunni extremists and terrorist outfits in Pakistan.

11. POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
• SSP has been involved in Pakistani politics since its
founding. In 1988, SSP founder Haq Nawaz Jhangvi
unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the national assembly.
Two years later, his successor, Isur Qasmi, was elected
to the national assembly and the provincial assembly in
Punjab.
• After Qasmi was assassinated in 1991, Azam Tariq, who
later became head of the SSP in 1997, took his
assembly seats.From 1993 to 1996, the SSP was
formally allied to then-prime minister Benazir Bhutto's
Pakistan's Peoples Party and had members serving in
the Punjab government.

12. Conti....
• The SSP has also been involved in non-violent
activism. In 1993, the party organized a 300-mile
protest caravan to Islamabad "to press its demand
that the government enact a law to punish
sacrilege against holy men," legislation later
sponsored by assembly member Azam Tariq.

13. RESOURCES
• Since its founding, the SSP received financing and
support from Persian Gulf countries and the central
Pakistani government. Most state financing was used to
construct and operate Wahhabi and Deobandi
madrassas, which have proliferated in Pakistan in
recent decades. In Punjab alone, the number of
madrassas has risen from about 700 in 1975 to more
than 3,000 in 2000. There are now approximately one
million madrassa students in Pakistan, and Deobandi
madrassas in southern Punjab continue to offer a
replenishing supply of militants to the SSP.

14. Conti...
• SSP gets additional resources from the narcotics
trade and other criminal activities. Although the
Pakistani government officially banned the group in
2002, some elements of the Pakistani military and
intelligence services.
• the SSP received money from several Persian Gulf
countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates. These countries funded the SSP and other
Sunni militant groups primarily to counter the rising
influence of Iran's revolutionary Shiism.