Islamabad, April 23: Two madrassas controlled by
radical clerics threatening to impose Shariah law here have
thousands of students either "kidnapped" or "bought" from
Kashmir and their plans included capture of power in Pakistan
by toppling President Pervez Musharraf, claimed a report by a
political party.
Many students at the Jamia Hafsa girls madrassa are from
poor families apparently from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)
who have been either "kidnapped" or "bought", according to the
report released in Karachi yesterday by an investigation
committee of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
"They are trained for suicide attacks and brainwashed
into believing that the world is a temporary abode," said the
report, widely published in the media here today.
"These students told the people kidnapped by them that at
present they numbered only 7,000, but when their force
increased to 70,000 they would dismiss President Pervez
Musharraf, seize power in the country and impose Sharia".
The report alleged that there were stockpiles of modern
weapons, including kalashnikovs, AK-47 rifles and rocket
launchers, in Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia, the seminary for
boys. According to the report, "strange" people, who do not
permanently live there, frequently visit the madrassas.
Released as a follow-up action to a rally in Karachi by
MQM, in which lakhs of people took part to oppose attempts by
Islamic extremists to impose shariah, the report said Lal
Masjid was initially built legally, but a few years ago, was
"illegally occupied by armed force" by brothers Maulana Abdul
Aziz and Maulana Ghazi Abdul Rashid.
The two were high-grade government employees but were
sacked for possessing illegal arms, the report claimed.
The report which provided details the history of the Lal
Masjid and its two madrassas alleged the two radical clerics
who controlled the administration plans to use women as "human
shields" in case of police action and use their deaths as a
"propaganda tool to justify suicide attacks".
It claimed that the mosque administration had instructed
the burqa-clad girl students to attack shops selling
television sets and cameras in Islamabad.
The students attacked vehicles driven by women and beat
them up besides stopping cars and taking the cassette players
out, and assaulting men and women wearing western dress. In
some cases, they warned women wearing jeans that if they were
seen again in that attire, their legs would be chopped off.
The report said many students living in the Lal Masjid
compound were engaged in "jihad" in Afghanistan. They were
trained for suicide attacks and encouraged to seek martyrdom.
There were some 4,000 to 5,000 of these men.
Students of Jamia Hafsa had been ordered that if they saw
a woman or a female student without a burqa they must beat her
up with sticks and force her in a confession cell at Jamia
Hafsa to seek forgiveness, the report said.
Jamia Hafsa "is like a colony where residential houses
also exist beside the madrassas. Ten to 15 women live in a
single room with inadequate toilet facilities," the girls
interviewed by the MQM committee said.
The report said the members of the MQM probe committee
covertly visited Jamia Hafsa where they saw that each room has
a refrigerator and besides food, soft drinks like Pepsi and
Coca-Cola are also available.
Bureau Report