LAHORE, Nov 17: Punjab IGP Syed Masood Shah on Monday directed his force to collect information about foreigners studying at seminaries.

The instructions were given at a meeting held at the Civil Secretariat to review the crackdown on the offices and religious schools of three outlawed organizations. All DIGs of the province, Special Branch IG Saadatullah Khan and Additional IG (Crime Investigation Department) Tariq Pervez attended the meeting.

The provincial police chief directed the district police heads and the DIGs to seize all objectionable material from the seminaries.

“Take due action against those involved in publishing and disseminating such matter,” Mr Shah said, and added that a strict vigil should be kept on all mosques, religious schools and imambargahs to avoid their negative use by any of the fundamental groups, including those outlawed.

The Millat-i-Islamia Pakistan, the Islami Tehrik Pakistan and the Khuddamul Islam were banned on Saturday. In a subsequent action, over 60 offices and seminaries belonged to them were sealed in the province.

The IGP told the meeting that the Nazims and other public representatives should be taken into confidence over the issue and their help be sought for better results.

He told the meeting to register cases under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, against violators. He said the banned groups had been denied the right to hold any public meeting.

About foreigners, the IGP directed the officials to update data about them at the earliest, and any of them found involved in any anti-state activity be proceeded against accordingly. He also asked the officials to update the data about the seminaries, the number of students, teachers and the kind of syllabi being taught.

Later in the evening, the IGP and the Punjab home secretary, along with other high command of the Punjab government, gave a briefing to the chief minister on the latest situation.

A senior Punjab police officer told Dawn that the data about the seminaries was last updated by the police and the other agencies in March this year. It was done through a district-wise survey, he added.

As part of exercise, he said, a sample proforma seeking information about the number of local and foreign students and teachers was sent to the police in all districts of the province. The provincial home department and the auqaf ministry were corresponding with the police on this issue, giving further instructions as to how go about gathering facts, the officer said.

According to the last survey of the seminaries conducted by the interior ministry one-and-a-half-year-ago, there were 6,761 seminaries in Pakistan. Of them, some 3,153 were situated in the Punjab, 1,281 in the NWFP, 905 in Sindh and 692 in Balochistan, 151 in Azad Kashmir, 185 in the northern areas and 194 in Islamabad.

A total of 1.3 million students, including 36,000 foreigners, were enrolled with these religious institutions. Some 17,000 of them were Arabs.