KARACHI, 3 January — Pakistan has handed over 85 more members of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda group to United States, and was working on a law to control the madrassas and their educational institutions, which have often been accused of being involved in terrorism.
A separate cell or department may also be created to form a broad-based policy about these seminaries and ensure its implementation, official sources said. Officials here said that the authorities had arrested 50 more Afghan nationals near the NWFP town of Dera Ismail Khan and after investigation in Peshawar and Kohat jails of the Al-Qaeda members, have finally handed over them to the US.
Meanwhile, police in Karachi, under orders from the center, had begun compiling data on students of religious institutions with a view to keeping a greater check on their activities. A watch was simultaneously being kept on foreign students at these institutions to prevent them from doing anything not in consonance with the law of the land.
The government is also working on syllabi to be introduced in these institutions, these officials said and claimed that the military administration was keen to restore the country’s liberal image.
For the third successive day, security forces in the port city, carried out raids on offices of the militant organizations, especially of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e- Muhammad, and Sipah-e-Sahaba yesterday. Six more of their offices were sealed yesterday morning, and another 26, including Mulla Shoaib, and Hafiz Sattar, were taken into custody. The records, and literature found in these offices were seized.
