KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Shaken by a spate of religiously motivated killings, Pakistan's military-led government promised Saturday to draft a law banning extremist Islamic groups linked to terrorism and murder.
``The government has prepared a comprehensive law to ban all the sectarian organizations'' involved in violence and terrorism, Law Minister Shahida Jamil told reporters in the southern port city of Karachi.
The law will be implemented next month, she said. Pakistan's Senate and National Assembly were dissolved by military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
The announcement followed Thursday's killing of the Shiite Muslim chief of Pakistan's largest oil company in Karachi.
Shaukat Mirza, 62, managing director of state-run Pakistan State Oil, was heading to his office when gunmen on a motorcycle blocked his vehicle and opened fire. He died immediately.
In recent years, thousands of people have been killed throughout Pakistan in religiously motivated killings. Small but heavily armed extremist religious groups attack graveyards, shrines and mosques of rival sects, killing unarmed people.
Most of the victims belong to the minority Shiite Muslim sect.
In the past, police blamed the Sunni Muslim group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, or the Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet, for most of the violence. The Sipah-e-Sahaba, which wants Shiite Muslims to be declared outside Islam, denies the charges.
Prominent members of both sects who are not linked to militant groups have also been targeted.
The majority of Pakistan's 140 million people are Sunni Muslims who live peacefully with Shiite Muslims.
AP-NY-07-28-01 1333EDT
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.