‘Over half of Karachi’s madrassas registered’

Karachi
Of the 1,406 madrassas in Karachi, 833 have been registered and the remaining will be regularised soon with the help of magistrates and Rangers, the city police chief told The News on Wednesday while giving details about the progress made so far in connection with the National Action Plan.
In the seminaries that have been registered, there are 173,736 students enrolled - 173,103 local and 633 foreigners, Additional IGP Karachi Mushtaq Mehar added.
The official said the police force was also taking action against banned outfits, and monitoring the people on the 4th Schedule or the terror suspect watch list. “In the last two years, 153 members of militant groups were released from jail and we have been monitoring their activities,” he added.
Efforts are under way so that under the anti –terrorism law, the people of the 4th Schedule can be detained for questioning.

Implementation of NAP
The Karachi police chief said several steps were being taken to implement the National Action Plan including the arrest of illegal immigrants and removal of hate graffiti and flags of banned outfits, and survey of seminaries.
The official added that he had ordered the DIGs of all police ranges in the city to implement the plan on a priority basis.
“We have taken many bold steps to curb extremism and are also conducting intelligence-based raids and search operations to nab terrorists and their facilitators and supporters.”
Besides, he said, the police force was also making efforts to cut off terrorist financing. “An intelligence team has been formed to monitor terrorism funding.”

Banned outfits
The additional IGP said in their crackdown against banned outfits, the police had so far conducted 17,500 raids, searches, combing operations and holdups. Around 992 encounters took place in which 112 terrorists belonging to sectarian and other terrorist organisations were killed and 40 arrested. During these operations, suicide jackets, 118 kilogrammes of explosive material, and 417 bombs and grenades were found.
Giving more details about these figures, the official said three terrorists belonging to al Qaeda were killed and six arrested, 102 terrorists of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan were killed and 26 arrested, six terrorists of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were killed and seven arrested, and one member of Sipah-e-Sahaba was killed and one arrested. To a query, Mehar said 64 cases had been selected to be sent for trial in military courts and they were being further scrutinised.
Loudspeakers Act
The official said 128 people had been arrested for violating the Loudspeakers Act and 393 cases registered.
Besides, he added, 423 cases were lodged and 371 people arrested for violating the Sindh Sound Regulation Ordinance.
The city’s police chief said 10 cases had been lodged over possession of hate literature and 11 people arrested.
Under the National Action Plan, he added, over a 1,000 illegal immigrants including 950 Afghans had been arrested and 468 cases registered.
Mehar said that recently the Brigade police were patrolling near Imambargah Ali Raza in Jacob Line where they saw some people distributing hate material. They escaped when they saw the police leaving behind the hate material.
Besides, he added, police had also registered an FIR against some unidentified men for writing hate slogans on a wall in front a private school.
The police also found hate graffiti on a wall in Soldier Bazaar No 3 and removed it. A case was registered against the people responsible for it.
They had removed hate graffiti on the wall of a marriage lawn.
The similar FIRs were also lodged at the Peerabad, Iqbal Market and Manghopir police stations.