100 suspects arrested in police raids on madrassas

The operation was planned after “suspicious activity” was noted in few madrassas, says a police official.

PESHAWAR: Police rounded up several suspects from unregistered madrassas on Tuesday during a search operation in various areas of the city.

The operation was planned after “suspicious activity” was noted in a few madrassas, said a police official.

More than 10 madrassas were raided and several suspects were taken into custody, a police source told The Express Tribune, revealing that a majority of the seminaries were unregistered.

“More than a hundred suspects were taken into custody after we carried out a search operation in Yaqatoot and University Road areas,” said the source.

Many of those apprehended were Afghan nationals, said the official.

The relatives of those arrested and other madrassa students gathered around the Yaqatoot police station and protested against the search operation, however, police baton-charged the protestors and used tear gas to disperse them.

The operation comes at a time when there have been two suicide attacks and a number of kidnappings and targeted killings in the surrounding areas of the provincial capital.

There are around 18-24,000 registered madrassas in Pakistan. There are countless more unregistered seminaries. It was also recently reported that 90 per cent of foreigners studying in religious seminaries across the Punjab had expired visas.