PESHAWAR, Nov 2: The Jamaat-i-Islami on Thursday launched a fund to rebuild a seminary destroyed in this week’s deadly air raid and to compensate the victims’ families.

“We have initially set up a fund with Rs1 million for the reconstruction of the madressah in Bajaur,” JI provincial chief Sirajul Haq the told a news conference.

He said the fund would also be used to pay compensation to the families of those killed in the religious school. He appealed to the people to donate generously in the fund.

More than 80 people were killed in the air strike by the military on the madressah in the tribal area of Bajaur, bordering Afghanistan.

Officials said the school was being used as a training centre for Al Qaeda-linked militants but religious leaders say that those killed in the operation were students and teachers.

Mr Haq called for an independent investigation into the incident. “We will continue our protest until the government set up a neutral tribunal to probe the incident and the facts are made public.”

The bombing triggered a countrywide protest against the US and Pakistani governments.

More than 20,000 people, many brandishing guns, gathered at several rallies in the remote Pukhtun tribal belt along the Afghan border on Wednesday.

A rally at Salarzai village, near the destroyed madressah, attended by about 10,000 tribesmen, demanded the resignation of President Gen Musharraf.—AFP