The government is planning to block the financial resources of madrassas, banned religious organisations and non-government organisations, sources told Daily Times on Monday. The sources said that these organisations had gathered foreign funds under the pretext of hides’ collection. Intelligence agencies investigating the collection of sacrificial animals’ hides have found strong links between ‘money launderers’ and proscribed organisations, the sources added.An Interior Ministry official said that intelligence had found out that these organisations were collecting hides to provide legal cover to un-auditable funds being channelled from abroad for alleged terrorist activities. The investigation aims at blocking the illegal funding to banned jihadi organisations and seminaries, he added. According to the report, several madrassas and banned outfits had collected a small number of hides, but had over-projected their collections in the media. The sources said that the report pointed out that various banned militant groups had received foreign funds before Eid and were now using the hides to legalise this money.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry has directed the federal and provincial auqaf departments to enforce the ban on collection of funds being defied by registered mosques and seminaries, particularly on Fridays, the sources said. “The ban will be enforced during Muharram as per the directives given by President General Pervez Musharraf at a meeting last week,” they added.
The sources said that intelligence agencies were also monitoring the bank accounts of mosques, NGOs and seminaries to determine whether they had any links with terrorist networks. An official of the Interior Ministry told Daily Times that the federal and provincial auqaf departments had also been directed to gather the record of registered and unregistered mosques that had encroached on private land. He said that if proven, the encroached portion of the madrassa or mosque would be demolished.