Pakistan bans country's largest extremist group Ahle Sunnah Wal Jamaat

Islamabad, Mar 10 (ANI): Pakistan's largest Islamic extremist group Ahle Sunnah Wal Jamaat has described the government's move to ban the group as preposterous.

The interior ministry's order says the organisation has been banned for what it calls its "concerns in terrorism", the BBC quoted a copy of the order, as saying. hle Sunnah Wal Jamaat was first banned in 2002 by the then Pakistani leader General Pervez Musharraf.

Activists from the pro-al-Qaeda group formerly known as the Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP), or Soldiers of the Companions of the Prophet, have been convicted of killing hundreds of Shia Muslims.

The head of the group slammed the current ban, saying: "It's taken us so long so rein in our activists - it will become very difficult to control their emotions if the ban is enforced."

Other minorities, security targets and embassies have also been targeted by members of the group.

The group has also recently been in the forefront of an alliance of extremist groups calling for an end to the country's relationship with the US, the Defence of Pakistan Council (Difa). (ANI)