Malik Muhammad Ishaq, the feared leader of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LeJ) militant group, is dead - killed in police custody in a suspected encounter on July 29. But his ghost continues to haunt the Punjab government.

Fear of a backlash from the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ) against his killing, along with his two sons and 11 followers, is believed to be behind the search operation launched against madressahs which law enforcement agencies claim were directly involved in promoting terrorism.

Seminaries placed on top of the watch list in category A are the focus of the search operation the Counter Terrorism Department (CTC) and local police are jointly conducting in the Rawalpindi division under the National Action Plan (NAP).

The CTD has divided madressahs into three categories. Category A refers to the madressahs considered directly involved in promoting terrorism, and the madressahs found facilitating, or had facilitated terror groups figure as Category B while the madressahs which were reluctant to share intelligence regarding plans of militant outfits with the police, despite having prior information fall in C category.

There are 47 madressahs under surveillance in the Rawalpindi division, 12 of them categorized as “A”.

According to an intelligence official, some A category seminary madressahs had sheltered militants and provided training grounds for them. Search of one of them in the past had unearthed rocket launchers, suicide jackets and other explosive materials.

A vehicle used to transport arms and belongings to the chairman of another madrassa was also impounded but was later released on the intervention of a political leader.

Similarly in 2008, a suicide jacket was recovered from a madrassa in Raja Bazar, an accused in the terrorist attack on Gen Pervez Musharraf was arrested from a madrassah in Gulistan Colony.

The officer said the government has been trying to get details of foreign and local funding to madressahs. Monthly expenditure of a madrassa is estimated between Rs2.5 million and Rs3 million.

Qazi Abdul Rashid, head of the Darul Uloom Faooquia located in Quaid-i-Azam Colony, which a joint team of CTD and police searched on August 7, told Dawn that the team was given free access to all materials and the search went smoothly. But he thought the search should not have taken place as it panicked the students and the neighborhood.

“We believe in dialogue,” he said. “If the government wants any information from us, they should ask for it in a proper way.”

 City Police Officer Israr Ahmed Abbasi responded by observing that the madressahs in Rawalpindi district were being searched under NAP to check their students and their activities, and the written material they keep.

“Nobody was detained,” he said.

Asked to comment on the madrassa search operation, the deputy secretary of the Wafaq-ul-Madaris and chairman of Darul Uloom Farooquia disputed that any of the madressahs affiliated with the Wafaq was “involved in terrorism or imparting training to any terrorists.”

But he did not object to the searches, only to the way the police conducted them. “Raids (on madressahs) are unjustified. They distress students and create panic and fear in the neighborhood.

“We believe in dialogue and all madressahs cooperate with the government on all issues in the interests of our country,” Qazi Abdul Rasheed said.

In Rawalpindi division, there are 1,256 madressahs with 74,401 students on their rolls. Of them 507 madressahs are registered and the remaining 749 are unregistered. 

Despite CTD’s claims, the search teams did not recover any hate material, nor made any arrests, nor sealed any madressah.

Some observers, however, want the searches to continue, though on the basis of strong intelligence.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2015

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