ISLAMABAD: The capital police have ‘checked’ religious seminaries twice this year, but found nothing suspicious.

The Rawalpindi police, on the other hand, arrested suspects from the premises of an Islamabad seminary in a joint operation with paramilitary troops, sources told Dawn.

The seminaries were first checked in January after the Army Public School (APS) attack in Peshawar and then shortly after the Attock bombing.

Senior police officials told Dawn that the second round of checks began on August 17 which were carried out by SHOs in their respective jurisdictions, but nothing suspicious was found.

However, two days later, the Rawalpindi police and paramilitary troops raided the Madressah Haqqania Masjid Qasmia located on the greenbelt adjacent to Faisal Avenue, and arrested four individuals, including two suspects, they said.

The presence of the suspects brought embarrassment to the Islamabad police as their checks were proved ineffective, the sources said.

The personnel went to the seminaries and asked the administrators to hand over details of their students and teachers, they said, adding the Margalla SHO, who went to the seminary in question, was served lunch in a room there.

The SHO was later given information on the number of students and teachers, as well as their native regions before being asked to leave. The officer’s other queries regarding the students and teachers at the seminary were not answered, and he was not allowed to enter the seminary or its residential portion.

When Rawalpindi police officials and paramilitary troops raided the seminary on August 21, they too were denied entry, but they entered the seminary forcefully after breaking down the doors, the officials said.

“There is a huge difference between the professionalism shown by Islamabad police and Rawalpindi police, which is why they succeeded in arresting two suspects while the capital police returned after being denied entry,” they said.

“The Rawalpindi police have the support of their seniors, and we (Islamabad police) do not,” a capital police officer said on the condition of anonymity. “We have clear instructions not to enter or raid seminaries without evidence of a suspicious activity,” he added.

“Such strict directions from our authorities prevented us from raiding and physically searching the seminary, as we will be criticised if we don’t find anything there,” he added.

“Previously, the capital police acted against seminaries based on reports from the special branch or intelligence agencies,” he said, adding due to the lack of support from their seniors, special branch officials withdrew from seminaries, which led to a drop in surveillance.

Following the arrest of the two suspects from the seminary, senior police officials asked the special branch and Margalla police to investigate whether they were present when Margalla police came to check the seminary. “But we have no effective intelligence or surveillance system at the seminary to investigate this, which must be investigated in the current circumstances,” he said.

Officials from Islamabad police, disguised as civilians and in uniform, went to the seminary to investigate but were denied entry again. “Our hands are tied. We cannot take action because of the lack of support from the decision makers,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2015

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