SUKKUR: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) in a swift reaction condemned the Sukkur administration after the announcement of a ban on the establishment of seminaries.

The announcement was made by Sukkur SSP Tanveer Hussain Tunio after presiding over a meeting of senior police officials in his office on Monday. The SSP said that printing and circulation of anti-state material also came under discussion at the meeting. It was decided that surprise visits would be paid to printing presses, outlets of printed material and CD/videos shops to track down suspects. Besides, he said, records of hotels and guest houses would be checked on a daily basis.

He said the decision was taken in line with the National Action Plan (NAP). He said that the pace of NAP implementation in this police range was reviewed at the meeting.

“We decided to impose a ban on the setting up of any new madressah in our jurisdiction,” he said, adding that strict action would also be taken against those seminaries which did not get themselves registered as yet.

“All such seminaries will be closed,” the SSP said. He said vigilance and monitoring of registered seminaries would continue.

The police officer said that the meeting decided to keep a special check on foreigners and illegal immigrants, especially Afghans, to curb terrorist activities, as well as activists of nationalist and proscribed outfits.

The SSP said that people coming from outside Sukkur and found vending in different parts of the district would be kept under watch and police would monitor their movement in markets, bazaars, lanes and public places.

Reacting to the ban on new seminaries, JUI-F district general secretary Maulana Mohammed Saleh Indhar has said that the NAP was being implemented throughout the country but the Sindh police appeared to be unnecessarily pro-active. He warned against propaganda to defame seminaries, which were imparting education as a religious obligation.

He said the JUI-F and other Islamic organisations would never accept a ban on new seminaries and if it was imposed on them, a countrywide protest would be organised.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2015