[DAWN] The Sindh government has identified 53 seminaries having ‘leaning towards militancy’ against which security agencies have been ordered to take ‘appropriate action’, it emerged on Saturday.Officials of the home department said they had got reports from intelligence sources which found 53 madressahs with ‘leaning towards militancy’ and a majority of them were in Bloody Karachi
...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
In a previous report that was compiled last year, the government had identified 49 madressahs ‘having links with terrorist organizations’.
Sources said the government did not name holy warrior groups to which the seminaries had ties with in the latest report after it had received strong reaction from several religious parties and representatives of different madressah boards to its previous report.
The latest report, which has been submitted to Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, used the term "leaning towards militancy" unlike the previous report that stated "links with terrorist organizations", the sources said.
While the holy warrior groups had not been named in the updated report, relevant information had been shared with the Sindh police and the Rangers to take ‘appropriate action’ against them, the sources added.
The report, however, did not explain what happened to a similar order that had been given for action against the previously identified 49 madressahs.
According to the latest report, more than half of the seminaries with holy warrior leanings were situated in Karachi, while a dozen others were in Hyderabad. The rest of the seminaries were functioning in Sukkur and Larkana divisions.
The officials reiterated that they were planning to take legal action against the madressahs. A similar claim they had made months ago.
12,000 seminaries in Sindh
As the authorities updated figures related to madressahs in its report, it emerged that their number increased threefold in Sindh during the past one year.
More than 4,000 seminaries had been recorded until April last year, while their number jumped to 9,590 in October and around 12,000 according to the latest report.
In all, 6,711 madressahs had registered themselves with the government, as the rest were still unregistered, the officials said.
The report said more than 600,000 students were enrolled with the seminaries.