PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Department of Auqaf and Religious Affairs has taken control of a seminary of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) in Saddar Peshawar.
The department took control of Jamia Masjid and Taleemul Quran madrassa in Peshawar Cantt and displayed a board whereon it is inscribed ‘under the management and regulation of the Department of Auqaf and Religious Affairs’.
Sources said that after taking control of the madrassa and mosques and putting signboards of the Auqaf department outside, the next step would be appointments of administrators and prayer leaders to replace the former ones to run their affairs.
Although the JuD has not yet issued any statement, the Wafaqul Madaris al Arabia (WMAA), a board of Deobandi madrassas, has shown its concern over the takeovers and held an internal meeting to discuss the issue.
Earlier, Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi had said that the operation against proscribed organisations under the National Action Plan (NAP) will continue till achievement of all objectives. The minister tweeted, “Operation against proscribed organisations as per NAP 2014 shall continue till achievement of objectives. Efforts to accelerate progress on complete NAP are being pursued.”
Before the takeovers were started, the federal government took as many as 44 members affiliated with proscribed organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar’s brother, Mufti Abdul Rauf, and son, Hammad Azhar, into “preventive detention” under NAP.
Moreover, the monitoring of the persons included in the ‘Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) Schedule-4 listt’ has been further tightened. Bank accounts of over 4000 persons have been sealed. FIA had earlier arrested a key accused involved in an illegal transaction of Rs 9 billion. Dozens of people allegedly involved in illegal transactions have been arrested in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The takeover was done as part of an ongoing crackdown against the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) after the two groups were listed among the proscribed outfits by the interior ministry recently. Auqaf department has also taken control of 18 other seminaries and mosques for their links with the JuD, the JeM and the Tehreek-e-Ghalba Islam, a JeM’s splinter group, in various parts of the country.
