PESHAWAR, Oct 7: The Sectarian Terrorists Activity Record, a data collecting body that was formed in 1998 to gather the data of militant sectarian groups, has failed to pinpoint the causes of sectarian strife in the country, sources told Dawn here on Tuesday.

The body came into being with a purpose to collect the data of sectarian outfits, monitor their activists and give suggestions to the law enforcement agencies to resolve their conflicts, sources said.

Its major purpose was to curb the monster of sectarianism but it totally failed to achieve its goal despite having only senior officials in its ranks, sources said.

“Only the DSPs, the ASPs and high-ranking official are part of the wing,

who are responsible to monitor activities of the defunct sectarian bodys,” they said.

The body was stopped from working owing to some political commitments by the then government when it was formed. By the time it resumed its activities in 2001 sectarian conflicts had undermined the fabric of our society, they added.

Officials of the body were mainly from the Crime Investigation Department (CID), but the special branch of the police department and the Inter-Services Intelligence also helped it to collect the data of sectarian bodys, sources said.

Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, Hangu, Abbottabad and Mansehra were the five major cities in the Frontier which were vulnerable to sectarian conflicts, they said.

But NWFP’s IG Police Riffat Pasha said that the bod successfully working through

out the country and particularly in the NWFP where no major sectarian violence broke out in five years.

“I am satisfied with the performance of the body in the NWFP, which helped curb sectarian terrorism,” he commented.