[ADN Kronos] By Syed Saleem Shahzad - As refugees displaced by conflict in northwest Pakistan make their way home, they are afraid that their children will now depend on Islamic religious schools as their only option for education. At least 270 schools, used by the Pakistani army as military posts, were destroyed in the crossfire and by bomb attacks in Malakand agency during the recent military offensive in North West Frontier Province. More than two million displaced people have begun leaving refugee camps and other shelters in the Peshawar valley region of the province. Now there is renewed fear that Islamic schools or 'madrassahs' will be the only system of education left to fill the vacuum which could lead to a new generation who could be trained for the Taliban.
Pakistan's largest spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, has produced a full dossier on this new phenomenon describing the connection and roles played by different religious education organisations in Pakistan and how they play a role for the networking of Jihadis.
The first page of the dossier is about a recently arrested militant, allegedly responsible for attacks on the state police Special Branch and a military camp in Islamabad highlights the connection between the militants and religious schools. Fidaullah Yousufzai alias Abdul Rahman was recently detained by the ISI along with former MP, Shah Abdul Aziz, from the home of Maulana Abdul Aziz.
Maulana Abdul Aziz, the recently freed cleric who was prayer leader at Islamabad's Lal Masjid or Red mosque, during the violent siege in July 2007 in which more than 100 people were killed.
The Pakistani interrogation report chart showed Fidaullah, 24, was educated at Lal Masjid Islamabad, Jamia Mohammadia, Jamia Faridia, Jamia Haqqania and Darul uloom Huda Golra. He comes from Buner in Malakand.
He joined a militia Ghazi Force, named after slain Abdul Rasheed Ghazi of Lal Masjid, because all his fellow students or teachers of seminaries he was educated in were part of the Ghazi Force.
He was also part of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's Buner chapter because he came from that area and spent time in prison where he increased his links with militants.
As the report suggested, this background helped him to become someone who plans terror attacks, raises funds through his sources and executes his plans with whichever group is available in a given area.
This chart focuses on four Islamic seminaries that are Jamia Mohammadia, Jamia Faridia, Jamia Haqqania and Darul Uloom Golra which engage a network from Swat Valley to Islamabad and setup an array of Jihadi outfit.