Recipient of foreign funds: Tough hunt for Punjab to identify madrassas

ET: ISLAMABAD: Civilian forces and intelligence agencies engaged in enrolling over 6,550 unregistered madrassas in Punjab are facing stiff resistance from hundreds of clerics who have refused to reveal their sources of funding.

A senior officer, who is also a member of the committee overseeing the implementation of National Action Plan against terrorism in Punjab, says that the actual resistance is from politicians who don’t want to lose their vote bank by exposing the clerics receiving funds from abroad.

“Unregistered Islamic seminaries are unwilling to register under the new form issued by the interior ministry, as they are bound to reveal their source of funding,” the official told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity.

These madrassas are located in Jhang, Chiniot, Attock, Gujranwala, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Khushab, Rajanpur, Layyah, Dera Ghazi Khan and other districts of the province, he added. “Our initial surveillance suggested that in Punjab, more than 170 madrassas are directly funded by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.”

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