November 18, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 22, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 17: Law-enforcement agencies have sealed about 137 offices and seminaries of recently-banned extremist outfits throughout the country, director-general of the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema (retired) told Dawn on Monday.

The NCMC chief said the crackdown on banned organizations would continue and more offices would be sealed in the coming days.

Giving a breakdown of the sealed offices and seminaries, he said about 63 offices of Millat-i-Islamia Pakistan (formerly Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan), 45 offices of Khuddam-i-Islam (formerly Jaish-i-Mohammad) and 29 offices of Islami Tehrik-i-Pakistan (formerly Tehrik-i-Jafarya Pakistan) had been sealed during the ongoing operation.

Brig Cheema said about 412 offices of these organizations had already been sealed about one-and-a-half year ago when they were being run under their previous names.

In reply to a question, he said law-enforcement agencies had found no resistance from the banned groups in any part of the country during the operation.

The official did not rule out the possibility that the names of main leaders of the banned groups would be put on the Exit Control List (ECL). “But so far we have not started the process of putting their names on the ECL,” he added.

Replying to another question, he said no leader or activists of these outfits had so far been detained. “We are concentrating on sealing the establishments of the banned groups instead of arresting their leaders,” he added.

According to reports submitted to the interior ministry by law-enforcement agencies, about 9,000 seminaries existed in the country.

When contacted, Interior Secretary Tasleem Noorani said that the possibility of banning more militant outfits could not be ruled out.

He said activities of some other extremist groups were being monitored and they too might be banned within next few days.