Sunni activist executed for Iranian murder

An activist from the hardline Sunni Muslim group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) was executed early on Wednesday morning in a Punjab jail for the murder of an Iranian diplomat, news sources reported. Sheikh Haq Nawaz was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court 10 years ago having been found guilty of shooting Sadiq Ganji, who was director of the Iranian Cultural Centre in Lahore. Ganji was the first prominent Shi'a Muslim from Iran to be killed in violence between Shi'as and Sunnis, which has dogged Pakistan for more than two decades. Since then, several Iranian Shi'as have been murdered in sectarian attacks blamed on the hardline SSP group. Founded in the early 1980s, the SSP has demanded that Shi'ites be declared a non-Muslim minority in Pakistan. The ongoing sectarian violence has at times severely strained Islamabad's relations with Tehran. Dr Rifat Hussain, chairman of the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at Quaid Azam University in Islamabad, told IRIN on Wednesday that, by refusing to commute the sentence of Nawaz, the military government of General Pervez Musharraf had set a strong precedent that it would not tolerate sectarian violence. "The government upheld the decision of the Supreme Court which is a significant move. It is spreading the message that it will not tolerate this kind of terrorist activity." The government stressed in media reports that it was determined to prevent what it called extremist groups from wielding too much influence in Pakistan. Hussain said that under previous governments, sectarian violence and related killings had gone unpunished, and the stance of the Musharraf government underscored a resolve to tackle religious extremism. "The challenge now is to address the structural causes of the reasons why sectarian violence has taken root in Pakistan," he said. Several hundred SSP supporters throughout Pakistan were taken into custody in advance of the execution in what authorities said was an effort to prevent wide scale protests over the execution, media reports said. However, Hussain considered that the hanging would not lead to a populist revolt. "Such an incident always produces a reaction. The SSP has an institutional base in this society. They are very well organised and quite capable of engaging in more acts of terrorism. However, I do not think this hanging will lead to a populist revolt; it will be localised," Hussain added. The international human rights NGO Amnesty International on Wednesday expressed its "extreme disappointment" that the Pakistan government had allowed the execution to go ahead. "Such executions are not going anywhere in resolving the ongoing violence between Sunni and Shi'a extremists," said Amnesty spokeswoman Maya Catsanis in London. "We would ask that the government reconsiders its use of capital punishment and repeals the use of the death sentence," she added. "While the Government of Pakistan must take decisive action to end the sectarian violence that has killed dozens this year alone, the death penalty does not serve this purpose," Amnesty stated in a press release on the eve of the execution. On the contrary, Amnesty said, "the use of the death penalty only encourages the cycle of violence to continue as sectarian groups seek revenge for those executed."