Sufi Muhammad
Sufi Muhammad صوفی محمد | |
|---|---|
| Founder and 1st Emir of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi | |
| In office 1992–2002 | |
| Preceded by | Position created |
| Succeeded by | Maulana Fazlullah |
| Personal life | |
| Born | 1933 |
| Died | (aged 86) Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan |
| Children | At least one daughter |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Ḥanbalī |
| Creed | Atharī |
| Movement | Salafīyyah Wahhābiyyah |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | Jamaat (1980s–1992) TNSM (1992–2002) |
| Years of service | 1980s–2002 |
| Rank | Emir (TNSM) |
| Battles / wars | |
Sufi Muhammad bin Alhazrat Hassan (Urdu: صوفی محمد بن الحضرت حسن; born 1933 – 11 July 2019) was a Pakistani Sunni Salafi cleric and militant, and the founder of Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), a militant group (declared a terrorist outfit and banned in 2002) vying for implementation of Sharia in Pakistan. It operated mainly in the Dir, Swat, and Malakand districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Sufi Muhammad was jailed for sending thousands of volunteers to Afghanistan to fight the U.S. intervention in 2001. However, he was freed in 2008 after he renounced violence.
He was the father-in-law of Mullah Fazlullah, who assumed the leadership of TNSM during Sufi's imprisonment.
He was described by BBC as a "follower" of Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi Salafist Islamic school of thought, and by the Jamestown Foundation as one of the "active leaders" of Jamaat-e-Islami in the 1980s.