KHAAR, Nov 2: A second batch of about one thousand Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi activists crossed into Afghanistan to take part in Jihad. The first group of armed men had entered Afghanistan on Thursday.

Riding pick-up trucks, the armed group crossed the Ghaki Pass border to enter the Kunar province around 12 noon. TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad who is in Afghanistan persuading the Taliban leadership to let his volunteers take part in fighting, has not returned.

The TNSM rose to prominence in 1994 when it launched a bloody campaign for the enforcement of Shariat in the Malakand division. Its activists had then seized control of the airport in Saidu Sharif, and occupied police stations and district courts. The government had to mount a military operation to flush out the TNSM activists.