Punjab Timeline- 2006

Month/Date	Incidents
January 1	The Punjab Police Department said that as many as 200,246 students are enrolled in seminaries representing the Deoband school of thought, while 199,733 students are associated with seminaries belonging to the Barelvi school of thought in the Punjab province. While 34,253 students are affiliated with the seminaries representing the Ahl-e-Hadith school of thought, 7,333 students are getting education from the seminaries of Ahl-e-Tashi school of thought. The classified report showing the situation till September 2005 states that a total of 441,565 students are getting education in Madrassas (seminaries) across the Punjab province. Bahawalpur district with the highest number of 41,811 students comes first while the cities of Lahore, Bahawalnagar and Faisalabad appear second, third and fourth with 35,339 students, 33,026 students and 31,941 students registered with the religious seminaries, respectively.
January 5	The railway track between Dera Ghazi Khan and Multan in Punjab province is blown up by unidentified terrorists just before the Lahore-bound Chiltan Express is due to arrive there. "The railway track is blown up by miscreants near Darvesh Leghari railway station at midnight but the railway staff on patrol saw the incident and managed to stop the Lahore bound Chiltan express coming from Quetta at DG Khan railway station," Pakistan Railway official Ahmed Mukhtar said.
January 6	Reports from Punjab province indicated that railway traffic on the Dera Ghazi Khan-Jacobabad section was suspended after a bomb explosion blew up the track two kilometres south of the local railway station in Dera Ghazi Khan (DGK). The explosion site is adjacent to the establishment-cum-residential colonies of the Atomic Energy Commission. This is the second blast on the railway tracks in the DGK region during the current week.
January 20	In their efforts to enhance people-to-people contacts, India and Pakistan on launched a bus service between Amritsar and Lahore in the two Punjab provinces. The first Lahore-Amritsar bus included 15 Pakistan Government officials, six journalists and a group of artistes and crossed the Atari-Wagah joint check post at around 11:30 am. The Dosti (friendship) bus will arrive from Lahore every Friday and return from Amritsar on Saturday, being renamed "Punj Aab" after the land of the five rivers.
February 17	The Government reportedly put under house arrest Hafiz Mohamed Saeed, chief of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), and barred him from addressing a conference against the publication of blasphemous cartoons in several European newspapers. The chief of LeT, which is also known as Jamaat-ud-Da’awah, was put under house arrest in Lahore to stop him from addressing an anti-cartoon conference in the city of Faisalabad in the Punjab province, his spokesperson Yahya Mujahid said. Yahya claimed that a heavy contingent of police arrived at the Lahore home of Saeed and told him he could not go outside.
February 26	The main gas pipeline of the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited is blown up at Rajanpur district in the Punjab province, suspending gas supply to Punjab and the North West Frontier Province. The blast also melted a nearby railway track, causing the suspension of trains on the Multan-Quetta route via Dera Ghazi Khan. A Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) activist, identified as Muhammad Saleem, is arrested in the Jallah Jeem Town of Mailsi in Punjab province.
March 21	Gas supply to Punjab and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) is suspended from the Sui gas plant in Balochistan province after a gas pipeline is blown up in Doli, some 20km from the Sui township. "It is a 30-inch-diameter pipeline through which gas is supplied to Punjab and the NWFP," Unknown armed men planted an explosive device under the pipeline which blew around 2am (PST). Sources said gas supply was immediately stopped as the pipeline caught fire after the powerful explosion.
April 4	An anti-terrorism court in the Sahiwal district of Punjab province sentenced to death a Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) activist, Naveed Akhtar, for killing advocate Syed Abid Hussain Bukhari and his son Haidar Abbas on July 30, 1997.
April 18	A prominent Shia cleric and his driver are shot dead at Faisalabad. Fazal Hussain Alvi and his driver, Qasim Ali, were in their car when unidentified motorcyclists ambushed them near the University of Agriculture at Raja Wala Road. Alvi had reportedly been banned from public speaking by the Government because of the fiery nature of his speeches.
May 26	A 24-inch diameter main pipeline is blown up near the Goth Mazari village on the Balochistan-Punjab border. The pipeline supplies gas to many areas of Punjab.
June 9	Six activists of the outlawed Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), allegedly involved in murder, robbery and sectarian terrorism cases, are arrested during a raid at Rahim Yar Khan in the Punjab province. Suicide-bombing gadgets and a number of weapons were seized during the raid, District Police Officer Syed Ahsan Mahboob told a press conference.
June 12	Six LeJ activists were arrested from Multan. Police said that one of the arrested, identified as Nasir, had admitted to his involvement in a suicide attack on a Shia mosque at Gulshan-e-Iqbal in Karachi in 2005, in which at least five people had died and 18 wounded. Nasir had a Rupees 500,000 bounty on his head. "He is the chief of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s suicide bomber squad in southern Punjab and is involved in plotting a suicide attack at a Shia mosque in Karachi last year," police spokesperson Riaz Khalid said in a statement.
June 20	Unidentified insurgents blew up a section of the rail track near Kot Chhutta railway station in the Dera Ghazi Khan area of Punjab province. However, no casualties are reported.
June 28	Suspected militants blew up a gas pipeline in the Pat Feeder locality of Dera Bugti district, disrupting gas supplies to many areas of the Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab provinces. "A 30-inch diameter pipeline, which supplies gas to Sialkot, Shakarpur and Karachi, is blown up with explosives. The gas supply to Karachi is restored immediately and repair work is in progress.
July 3	The Punjab Assembly adopted a bill to make it compulsory for seminaries to register with the government. No unregistered religious seminaries should be allowed to operate, according to the bill. All seminaries set up after the bill is passed, it said, must register within 12 months. Seminaries should submit annual reports of their educational activity to the registrar, the bill said, and should get their accounts audited and submit a report to the registrar. No Madrassa (seminary) should teach or publish literature that promoted militancy, sectarianism or religious hatred, it said, "provided that nothing contained herein shall bar the comparative study of various religions or schools of thought or the study of any other subject covered by the Holy Quran, Sunnah or Islamic Jurisprudence."
July 23	Inspector General (IG) of Police, Ziaul Hassan Khan, said that the Punjab Police have arrested more than 550 clerics and activists suspected to have links with various militant organisations in a serious of raids across Punjab province. The crackdown was reportedly carried out on the directions of President Pervez Musharraf.
July 24	Unidentified gunmen shot dead a former Member of Punjab Assembly, Gulfam Ashraf, while his two companions sustained bullet injuries in an attack near Ravi Rayon Mills in Kala Shah Kaku. The security force personnel arrested a man, Mohammed Shahbaz, who heads a camp for training militants belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) from Lahore.
August 9	The Punjab Government reportedly put LeT chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed under house arrest for one month at his house in Lahore, two days ahead of a public meeting he was scheduled to address in the city. "We have orders from the government to detain the Dawa [Jamaat-ud-Dawa] leader," said city police chief Khwaja Khalid Farooq. Police sources said the Jamaat-ud-Dawa had planned to hold a public meeting on August 12 at Minar-i-Pakistan in connection with the Independence Day.
August 24	The Punjab Government issued a list of 46 activists of a defunct outfit and directed the District Police Officer (DPO) to take them into custody to combat sectarianism. The Government action against the defunct outfit follows the foiling of London airport plot and it has directed all DPOs to launch a crackdown on these activists.
August 28	The Lahore High Court set Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT, also known as Jamaat-ud-Dawa) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed at liberty, terming his detention illegal. Justice Mohammad Akhtar Shabbir directed the home department to order the release of Saeed, observing that the Punjab Government had failed to produce concrete evidence substantiating its claim that he and his organisation are planning to disrupt peace and tranquility by holding rallies. The Government’s fear, the court observed, is based on certain conjectures and suppositions, which did not constitute a lawful ground to take away the freedom of a citizen.
September 17	A bomb blast outside a Punjabi settler’s house injured two children and three women in the Khuzdar district of Balochistan province. Unidentified people had planted the bomb near a wall of Dr Tahir Sheikh’s house. Sources said the attack appeared to be part of the ongoing violence against Punjabi settlers in Balochistan, following the killing of tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti.
September 21	The former district president of the outlawed Shia group Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP), Syed Bashir Hussain Bukhari, is shot dead by two assailants in the Muslim Bazaar of Sargodha in Punjab province. Bukhari was reportedly a witness and complainant in the 1996 killing of two local Shia leaders - Maulana Nasir Hussain Najfi and Maqbool Hussain Khan - allegedly by activists of the proscribed Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ).
September 23	A bomb attached to a bicycle exploded at a cattle market in the Dera Ghazi Khan city of Punjab province, killing at least two people, including a 14-year old boy, and wounding 20 others.
October 18	Police at Mianwali arrested three alleged terrorists belonging to the defunct Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). Police officer Zarat Kiyani said they were in possession of two hand-grenades, a pistol and bullets, adding they wanted to carry out an attack on a Shia shrine in the Sheikhupura district. They were identified as Noor Muhammad, Abdul Waheed and Rao Saifullah.
October 22	A Shia cleric, identified as Syed Asif Ali Shah, is shot dead by unidentified armed assailants in a suspected sectarian killing at Bahawalpur.