Pakistan targets funding of madrasa to combat terror

Pakistan has frozen more than 200 bank accounts of unregistered religious seminaries in a bid to break the nexus between militants and those who provide them funds.

The initiative is part of National Action Plan (NAP) which was adopted at the start of the year to eliminate militants, their financiers and facilitators in the aftermath of the Peshawar school attack in which over 150, mostly shool children, were killed.

Commercial banks last week froze over 200 bank accounts of unregistered madrasas on the instructions of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).  All banks have also stopped opening fresh accounts of seminaries until they get themselves registered under a new mechanism introduced by the religious affairs ministry.

“Madrasas have declined to reveal their funding sources or register under the new mechanism. This has complicated our task to monitor their accounts under the new policy, which is a key part of the National Action Plan,” a senior official of the interior ministry was quoted as saying. He said around 211 suspicious accounts, mostly owned by individuals affiliated with seminaries, had been frozen across the country under the NAP. 

“These accounts held an amount of Rs 5 million,” the official said, adding that the interior ministry also sealed 32 unregistered seminaries which were believed to be receiving foreign funding.