So that’s what they’ve been up to all these years!
Pakistan: Spy agency exposes link
between militants and religious schools
Islamabad, 14 July (AKI) – 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 (photo) 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.