‘90pc of Sindh’s madrasas registered’

CTD chief Sanaullah Abbasi says geo-tagging of 7,500 madrasas also finished

Karachi

Ninety percent of madrasas in Sindh have been registered under the National Action Plan, the provincial police’s counter-terrorism department chief said on Sunday.

“Besides, the police’s special branch has also finished geo-tagging of 7,500 madrasas,” additional IG Sanaullah Abbasi, who also heads the special branch, told The News.

The official said of the 10,000 seminaries, including those that had shut down or only existed on paper, 8,846 had been registered.

“Now there are 1,300 madrasas that remain unregistered and 2,100 which are now closed or only in paper,” he added.

Abbasi said by Monday or Tuesday, the registration of all seminaries in the province would be completed.

Educational institutions

The CTD chief said the special branch was also collecting details of the educational institutions in the province.

“Presently, there were 56,498 educational institutions in Sindh. Of them, 10,475 are in Karachi alone. The majority of the rest of them are in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Sukkur and Larkana.”

The official said they had surveyed around 39,500 of them and 17,100 were remaining.

The CTD chief said police had taken data both from the provincial and federal governments for the registration of seminaries. 

He added that to control the publication and distribution of hate material in the province, the district police were acting on the information provided by the special branch, removing graffiti and registering FIRs.

“The special branch works as a source to the district police. We are now coordinating with the district police and also checking as to what action they were taking on the special branch’s recommendations. In this way, we counter-check each other,” he added.

Madrasa funding

The CTD chief said his department was closely keeping an eye of money being donated to madrasas.

“Besides the registration and geo-tagging of madrasas, we are also collecting information about their sources of income and the money’s utilization,” he added.

Abbasi said the police were also monitoring the spread of religious extremism on the internet, especially through social networking websites, and working to deal with the problem in a systematic way.

“I have also recommended to the government that madrasas should be merged with the school system having the same syllabus.”

A few weeks ago, provincial government officials had held a meeting wherein it was decided that action would be taken against seminaries having links with terrorist outfits in accordance with the National Action Plan.

The chief minister and the provincial adviser on religious affairs, at a meeting some months ago, had formed a committee for the registration of seminaries under the National Action Plan.

The police’s special branch was assigned the task of registering and geo-tagging the madrasas across the province.

The police had met with religious scholars and formed a committee comprising 10 members including representatives of the Wafaqul Madaris for this purpose.