Concerns voiced over govt’s decision to take over madrasas and mosques

Showing concerns over the government’s recent efforts to take control of a number of seminars and mosques across the country, including Karachi, a body representing Deobandi madrasas said on Tuesday the government was defaming the madrasas to appease the West.

Leaders of the Wifaqul Madaris al Arabia (WMA), a board of Deobandi madrasas, gathered to discuss the current situation, especially the government authorities taking over seminaries and sending notices to them, and to draw a strategy to pressure the government to stop such actions.

Qari Muhammad Usman, the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl’s deputy provincial chief, and Maulana Talha Rehmani, spokesperson for the WMA, were among those who took part in the deliberations.

Later, WMA Central General Secretary Maulana Hanif Jalandhari and other leaders spoke to a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, saying that the Sindh Auqaf department should immediately take back the notices it had sent to seminaries.

“The WMA in today’s meeting unanimously agreed that the body will not accept the government’s decision of taking over the seminaries and mosques,” Jalandhari said. “We are assessing its legal complications and after consultation with lawyers, the body will challenge it in the court.”

He said that the WMA had formed a five-member action committee for Sindh under Maulana Imdadullah, the body’s provincial chief. Jalandhari said a meeting of the Ittehad-e-Tanzimat Madaris-e- Deeniya (ITMD), a collation of all five wifaqs of madrasas, would be convened in the coming days to discuss the situation.

On Monday, as part of an ongoing crackdown against the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) after the two groups were listed among the proscribed outfits by the interior ministry recently, authorities in Karachi had taken control of a number of madrasas associated with them over the past few days.

Sindh’s Auqaf department took control of at least 18 seminaries and mosques for their links with the JuD, the JeM and the Tehreek-e-Ghalba Islam, a JeM’s splinter group, in various parts of the city.

“Ten among them were associated with the JuD and the remaining were linked with the JeM and its splinter group, Tehreek-e-Ghalba Islam,” Mufti Munir Ahmed Tariq, an official of the provincial Auqaf department, who has been given responsibilities in this regard, had said on Monday.

The Aufaq department has formed a three- member committee under the head of Tariq for taking control of seminaries. The other two members are Mehtab Khan and Naseem Khan, two district circle managers at the department.

“The provincial home department is in fact making a list of seminaries and the Auqaf department after receiving letters from it is taking control of the seminaries and mosques,” Tariq said while talking to The News.

He said that after taking control of the madrasas and mosques and putting the signboards of the Auqaf department outside, the next step would be appointments of administrators and prayer leaders to replace the former ones to run their affairs.