January 20, 2002	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 5, 1422

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CHITRAL, Jan 19; Chitral Police sealed the offices of two banned extremist organisations, Jaish-i-Mohammad and Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, and arrested two more workers of the organisations, raising the number of arrested ones to six.

It may be mentioned here that the other banned organisations — TNSM and Lashkar Taiba— have no offices in Chitral.

According to the information gathered from the offices of Superintendent of Police, there are 137 deeni madaris in the district of which 17 are residential. The number of students enrolled in the madaris is stated to be more than one thousand.

The madaris are being aided financially by the charity trusts and Arab NGOs. Two of the madaris located in the Chitral city and Drosh are run by the provincial government.

The Afghan refugees in the district have also set up a number of madaris. In the madaris set up by the local ulema, however, no Afghan or other national is enrolled.

Our Haripur correspondent adds: The district police arrested six workers and sealed three offices of the banned religious organizations under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.

A massive hunt is continuing for the arrest of other leaders and workers.

Most of the workers of the organizations have gone underground to escape arrest.