MINGORA, Aug 3: The defunct Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi has resumed its activities in various areas of Malakand.

An spokesman for the TNSM, Maulana Abdullah, told this correspondent on Sunday that the defunct organization was holding meetings in different districts, adding that the people were responding its calls with renewed vigour.

He said that various office-bearers of the organization had been assigned tasks regarding its re-organization.

The local TNSM leader said that a 30-member delegation of the TNSM had recently held a meeting with NWFP Chief Minister Mohammad Akram Durrani, informing him about the TNSM’s demands. The TNSM team was led by its acting amir Maulana Mohammad Alam, he added.

The TNSM team, he said, had asked the chief minister to play his role for the early release of Pakistanis still imprisoned in Afghanistan besides calling for the enforcement of the Shariat in the province.

During the meeting, the NWFP chief minister was informed that workers of the TNSM had supported the MMA candidates in the hope of the enforcement of Shariat, adding that if the MMA failed to enforce the Shariat, it would have to face the people’s rejection in the future.

The TNSM spokesman urged the government to release Maulana Sufi Mohammad unconditionally, saying that he (the Maulana) had committed no crime by participating in a holy war against the American, adding that the Maulana also sought the release of the confiscated weapons and vehicles. Some 1,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, dozens of rocket launchers, light machine-guns had been confiscated after the TNSM leader was on his way to Afghanistan in a bid to challenge American forces there after the fall of the Taliban government.

When asked to comment as to why the TNSM had resumed its activities despite a ban, the spokesman said that it was a peaceful movement and it had always been struggling only for the enforcement of the Islamic religious code.

Doubting the faith of those opposed to the enforcement of Shariat, he said that they could not be considered to be Muslims, adding that it was one of the religious obligations.