High Vigilance: Police to keep an eye on seminaries

ISLAMABAD: Police are monitoring people coming to attend, and leaving from, around 329 seminaries in the city. The decision was made in light of the suicide blast in Attock that killed Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada and several others on Sunday. A meeting headed by Islamabad Police Inspector General (IG) Tahir Alam Khan agreed to maintain a record of everyone visiting and leaving the seminaries at local police stations. Around 19,100 male and 8,400 female students are enrolled at various seminaries in the city, according to a police official. A survey by the police’s Special Branch in March revealed as many as 160 illegal religious seminaries within the city’s territorial limits, built on encroached lands. The survey also highlighted 401 seminaries and day-scholar schools, the majority of which run under the aegis of the Deobandi school of thought.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2015.