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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (43567)	1/16/2003 5:51:59 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

Pakistani authorities accompanied by English-speaking foreigners raided at least three Madaris in the federal capital, looking for al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects, school officials said on Thursday. About six Ulema filed a complaint with the Islamabad police on Thursday demanding charges of unlawful interference in the Madaris be brought against the foreigners, whom they said were American FBI agents. "They illegally entered our Madaris and are interfering in the affairs of our religious institutions," said Abdul Rashid Ghazi, deputy head of Jamia Faridia in Islamabad. Ghazi's Madrassa was not one of the three raided. "We want these people charged," he told reporters at a police station. School administrator Maulana Fida Muhammad said Dar-ul-Uloom Subhania was raided on early Wednesday, shortly after midnight, and that he was angered that foreign agents were involved. "What are they doing? Why were foreigners there? This should not happen," he said. The other two Madaris raided were Jamia Misbah-ul-Uloom on Tuesday and Masjid Abdullah bin Masood on Wednesday, according to school officials. A cook at Dar-ul-Uloom Subhania said the foreigners asked if there were any students linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban studying there. "They blindfolded me and took me in their car. After driving for about 10 minutes they started asking me about al-Qaeda and Taliban. They were asking me if there were any al-Qaeda and Taliban students here," Khaista Gul said. "They were asking questions in English and the locals were translating for them." None of the students or teachers were detained, Maulana Fida Muhammad said. However several student registers were taken, he added. Police said more than a dozen local Ulema on Thursday lodged a complaint, alleging that FBI agents raided the seminary. "There were FBI agents among 10 to 15 men, who intruded the seminary in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday," the complaint said, requesting police to register a case against the raiding party. Students said the Westerners were saying that they had been informed that al-Qaeda and Taliban followers had taken refuge in the seminary. "I told them there was no al-Qaeda or Taliban in the seminary but they insisted they had information that some of them were sleeping here." Some 70 students attend Islamabad's 14-year old Subhania seminary, mostly children of labourers living in the capital's slum areas. "They put me in a room and kept asking me about people visiting the Madrassa. There were people speaking English and then someone was translating them into Urdu," he said. "I told them that no foreigner was living in the Madrassa and that the students are from extremely poor backgrounds. Then they removed the blindfold and gave me a meal." He said he was dropped off in a forested area outside the capital on late Wednesday and found his way back to Islamabad. Police described as "baseless" the allegations by the Ulema. "There is no proof that any raid took place or there were foreigners involved in a raid," Kaleem Imam, Senior Superintendent of Police in the capital, told Reuters. Imam said he had no knowledge of any raid and accused Maulana Fida Muhammad of fabricating the incident. "But we are investigating and not ruling out any possibility," he told AFP.The Ulema insisted that the mosque and seminary were raided and that foreign agents were present. "I demand that a First Information Report be registered against these people because they were from the FBI," said the application from Abdul Razzaq Haideri, Imam of Abdullah bin Masood mosque in Islamabad. Haideri said in his complaint seen by Reuters that his mosque was raided at about midnight on Wednesday. In a separate incident, Maulana Fida Muhammad told reporters he was asleep when a raid took place late on Monday at his seminary and that his cook was taken away by the authorities. "I saw there were some (people) of reddish colour, who were speaking English and others who were translating for them," he said, explaining that they were asking questions about al-Qaeda and Arabs.