Teams comprising of magistrates and police officials also combed some rural areas, private guest-houses and hotels.

However, no arrest was made from any of the seminaries but their management was told that stern action would be taken if they were found to be providing refuge to terrorists.

The teams checked 10 madressahs, including Jamia Mohammadia, Jamia Qurtuba, Jamia Abbasia and Jamia Kazmia in Sihala area. It was found that many students under the age of 16 and hailing from Batal, Batgram, Balakot, Bajour and Swat were studying there. Some of the teachers also hailed from these areas.

Four seminaries, located in Barakhu area were also searched. Included among them were Jamia Farooqia and Jamia Omar of the Deobandi sect and one of the Shia sect. Darul Huda in Golra was also searched.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that action would also be taken against foreign nationals working as prayer leaders.

‘We will not allow any foreigner to become Imam-i-Masjid,’ the minister said in a statement shortly after the crackdown was launched on Saturday night on the basis of intelligence reports that some of the suspects from the war zone of South Waziristan had taken refuge in madressahs and they could carry out terrorist attacks in Islamabad and other parts of the country.

However, Wafaqul Madressahs, an association of seminaries, criticised the action and announced that such steps could undermine the agreement it had recently signed with the government.

Office-bearers of the Wafaqul Madressahs Maulana Saleemullah Khan and Mualana Muhammad Hanif Jalandhry claimed in a joint statement that police did not find anything objectionable in those seminaries.

This, they said, proved that all allegations against these schools were false.

It may be mentioned that the government, the WM and some other organisations running seminaries had recently signed for revamping the curriculum and introducing modern subjects.

Meanwhile, a joint team of city police and an intelligence agency raided an area adjacent to Sabzi Mandi and arrested 22 suspects, two of them women hailing from Fata and Afghanistan

The arrests were made after intelligence agencies reported that pro-Taliban suspects were hiding in the area and they were involved in procuring weapons for militants for use in acts of terror in different parts of the country.