Shiite

Police sealed takfiri Seminary affiliated with Abdul Aziz of Lal Masjid

The Punjab police chief informed a panel of the upper house of Pakistan’s parliament on Wednesday that law enforcement agencies have sealed a seminary affiliated with the notorious Lal Masjid in the Rujhan area of the province, hometown of cleric Abdul Aziz who has always promoted violent extremism.

 

Addressing the Senate Standing Committee on Privileges, IG Police Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera said the seminary was sealed last week because it was training students for jihad and spreading hate material. The panel, headed by Senator Tahir Mashadi, was discussing the issue of foreign funding to seminaries.
The inspector-general informed the panel that they have rounded up the cleric and teachers running the seminary and have sealed its library.

The move comes as part of a crackdown against hate material being distributed by seminaries. Sukhera told the Senate panel that the police is conducting further investigation into other seminaries affiliated with Lal Masjid in Rahimyar Khan, Rajanpur and tribal areas of Dera Ghazi Khan Division.

The police official said that in order to carry out the crackdown on the seminary, they took aid from the federal government.

The senate panel expressed concerns over Lal Masjid cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz over his comments on the Islamic state. They asked the government to look into how he is not following state orders pertaining to the spread of hate speech.
A spokesperson of Lal Masjid has maintained that cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz will neither surrender to the police. Civil society activists though have repeatedly called for the arrest of Aziz.

Furthermore, the Punjab police also told the panel that 147 seminaries are taking foreign funding.

On February 10, the Punjab police has also formally conceded before a Senate panel that seminaries were receiving foreign funding, as it sought help of the country’s top investigation agency—Federal Investigation Agency—to obtain actionable data for kicking off crackdown against the beneficiaries.

Related Articles

Back to top button

Adblock Detected

Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker