Involvement of Madressahs in London blasts dismissed

The government on Wednesday categorically dismissed any involvement of Pakistan's religious seminaries in London blasts and said none of the suspect had visited any Madressah. 'There is no proof that the religious seminaries of Pakistan are involved in 7/7 London bombing or any of the suspect actually visited any Madressah in Pakistan' said Javed Ashraf Qazi while talking to newsmen here on Wednesday.
The minister challenged the baseless allegations and said that the religious seminaries of Pakistan were not involved in providing any sort of military training to the students.
He outrightly rejected that any seminary in Abbottabad or Muzaffarabad had military training camps, however, he admitted that some religious seminaries were involved in fanning sectarian hatred in the past but said these were banned by the government.
He supported the decision of the government to send back all the foreign students studying in the seminaries of Pakistan saying that our Madressahs were basically meant for our own people and the country would no more afford the accusing fingers of the world.
Javed Ashraf Qazi said that all the foreign students including a large number of Afghan refugees studying in the seminaries particularly in the border areas of NWFP and Balochistan should go back to their respective countries.
To a question, he said before and after 9/11, in all the International terrorism incidents, no Pakistani was involved.
He said in 7/7 attacks in London, though the suspects were of Pakistani origin, but they were very much bona fide citizens of the United Kingdom and were born and brought up in that country.
He strongly dispelled the allegation that one of the London bombing suspect, Shahzad Tanvir had visited and studied in a religious seminary in Pakistan for four months.
The minister said that no seminary in Pakistan was offering a four-month course.
He blamed the Western media for creating anti-Pakistan hype, to distort country's image among the comity of nations.
The education minister said that at present there was no proper system for registration of the seminaries, however, he said by 31st December all the seminaries have to not only get themselves registered but also provide all necessary details.
He maintained that Ministry of Interior was working to streamline the functions of these institutions.
He told a questionnaire that in the due course of time, the Technical and Vocational Education institutes would be established all over the country, which would also welcome the students of the religious seminaries.