Pir Saifur Rahman

Pir Saifur Rahman (alternately Pir Saif-ur-Rahman, Ur Rahman, Rehman, etc)is a cleric of the Barelvi school of Islam, most recently active in Bara tehsil, Khyber Agency, Pakistan. The "Asia Times" has reported Rahman as the leader of northwest Pakistan's Ansar-ul-Islam [Hassan Abbas [http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IJ04Df02.html Pakistan's grip on tribal areas is slipping] "Asia Times", 4 Oct 2007.]

Though the dates vary by source, media reports agree that Rahman is originally from Afghanistan, emigrating to Pakistan's tribal northwest in the 1940s [Shamim Shahid [http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/April/subcontinent_April1.xml&section=subcontinent&col= Call for action against gun-totting supporters of Pro-Taleban cleric] "Khaleej Times", 1 Apr 2006] or 1970s.

Rahman's faction (identified with green flags in Bara) was opposed to, and on several occasions violently clashed with the Deobandi Muslim black-flagged Lashkar-e-Islam organization of Mufti Munir Shakir. [Sonya Fatah [http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2006/4/fatah.asp FM Mullahs] "Columbia Journalism Review", August 2006]

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