FAISALABAD, Jan 18: Special teams constituted by the federal government visited a number of religious institutions here on Sunday and checked the record pertaining to the admission of students , fee structure, donations received from local and international agencies, expenditure, salaries to staff and links of the local and foreign students with religious parties of the country.

The team members also obtained photocopies of a number of files, including travelling documents of foreign students and duplicate copies of telephone bills.

The teams also inspected rooms and belongings of foreign students with the help of heads of various religious schools in the city, tehsils of Samundri, Tandlianwala, Jaranwala and Saddar.

The management of the religious institutions were directed by the checking teams not to disclose their visits to anyone. Opting anonymity, a number of heads of religious institutions confirmed the visits and checking of their record by the special teams.

They said no one was allowed to leave or enter the premises or move freely during the checking and the entire task was completed by plainclothesmen.

A senior police officer told Dawn that the local police had just provided some personnel to the secret agencies for the checking purpose. "Special teams have been constituted by the interior ministry comprising officials of the secret agencies and policemen working in the Special and Security branches.

These teams are working round the clock and checking Madresahs throughout the province," he added. Meanwhile, the Jamiat Ahle-Hadith has criticized the government move of raiding religious seminaries.