New anti-govt militant group on the rise in Pak

A new, dangerous militant group has been silently on the rise in Pakistan, according to Pakistani authorities.

Authorities believe they have been wrongly blaming the Taliban for the recent attacks in Islamabad, while it is this new group -- called the Ghazi Force -- that is responsible all the recent deadly attacks in the capital.

Though just about three years old, the group has already undertaken some of the deadliest attacks in the country targeting the Pakistani military for siding the US, the Inter State Intelligence and the upper class of the Pakistani population.

The Ghazi Force is made of Pakistanis who have turned against the government, which they feel has betrayed them by backing the US in the Afghanistan war.

Islamabad's Inspector General of Police Kalim Imam has said that the Ghazi Force was behind most of the deadliest attacks in the capital during the last three years.

The group was formed around three years ago to avenge the Lal Masjid attack in 2007, where the security forces raided the mosque that has long been the training ground for Islamic militants.

Hundreds of students had reportedly died in the assault.

The group is mainly made up of relatives of those who died in the 2007 attack and has been named after the students' leader Maulana Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was also killed in the attack.

Ghazi and his brother Maulana Abdul Aziz Ghazi, who recently got bail after two years of imprisonment, were reportedly earlier on the payrolls of the ISI and the Paksitani government. The military attack on the Masjid came as a shock to the religious extremists, who till then had a backup from the government.

According to Imam, the Ghazi Force was behind the World Food Program blast in October 2009. The group had recruited the security guard who blew himself up inside the building killing five people.

The Ghazi Force is also allegedly responsible for the death of 22 people at the Red Mosque and the June 9 attack on the 60 vehicles that were ferrying supplies to NATO and US soldiers next door in Afghanistan, Imam said.

The Ghazi Force is believed to be headquartered in Orakzai region on the Paksitan-Afghanistan border and is headed by a certain Maulana Niaz Raheem, a former student at the Red Mosque.

The emergence of Ghani Force is an offshoot of Pakistan's policy to support Islamic terrorists to spread terror in India's state of Kashmir. As Pakistan has now been forced to destroy the Pakistani Taliban under US pressure, it has been forced to against many miltants that it earlier supported.

The Ghazi Force is also said to have close links with the Pakistani Taliban, which had been earlier held responsible for many of these attacks.