LANDI KOTAL, Nov 25: Mangal Bagh, amir of Lashkar-i-Islam (LI), a religious outfit of Khyber tribal region, announced through his illegal FM radio station that he was stepping down as chief of the organisation here on Tuesday.

Sources said that Mangal Bagh announced that Maulana Haleem Shah of Qambarkhel would be new chief of the outfit. The announcement was made during the 9pm programme of his FM radio, they added.

Mangal Bagh had become chief of LI in March 2006 after the authorities expelled its founding chief Mufti Munir Shakir from the tribal area. Mufti Munir had formed Lashkar-i-Islam as a counter outfit to Pir Saifur Rehman’s Ansarul Islam organisation in Dec 2005. Mufti Munir, who had been arrested after his expulsion from the area, had revealed after his release that Lashkar shura had decided that an amir would work only for three months. He had told reporters that Mangal Bagh was violating the shura’s decision as he did not step down after his term was over.