Authorities said Wednesday that an investigation into an alleged terrorist facilitation network had uncovered alleged links between illegal seminaries, extortion and the misuse of religious norms to support militant activities.
According to authorities, local facilitators used unregistered seminaries to obtain religious decrees disguised as religion to justify acts of terrorism.
According to authorities, the arrested suspect, identified as self-styled cleric Mufti Zafar Yab, was found to be affiliated with Jamia Nizamul Uloom in Bannu and a faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI).
Officials said the revelations made by the suspect highlighted the need to align illegal seminaries under the Directorate General of Religious Education (DGRE) with the National Action Plan.
According to investigators, the suspect said he completed the eight years Dars-e-Nizami program at the Yateem Khana branch of Jamia Nizamul Uloom in Bannu before pursuing a three-year specialization in Islamic jurisprudence (Takhassus fi al-Fiqh) by Markaz Islami Ghoriwala.
Authorities further revealed that the suspect admitted to being an active associate of terrorist commander Hikmat Roshan and a member of Gul Bahadur Shura. According to the confession, militant commanders asked him for religious decisions to justify extorting and intimidating wealthy people in the name of jihad.
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The suspect further said that Roshan offered incentives, positions and financial incentives to him and others in exchange for supporting the group’s activities.
Likewise, he stated that the group that the State refers to as Fitna al-Khawarij It had no connection with Islam and followed an ideology that justified the murder of Muslims. The Pakistani state uses the term Fitna al-Khawarij to refer to terrorists affiliated with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Security and religious affairs experts cited by authorities said the revelations suggested militant groups were exploiting illegal seminaries and self-styled clerics to further their goals.
They noted that an agreement reached in 2019 between Wifaqul Madaris Al-Arabia Pakistan and representative organizations of religious seminaries under Ittehad Tanzimat-e-Madaris provides a framework for registration of seminaries.
Experts said the latest revelations underlined the need to include unregistered seminaries under the DGRE’s regulatory framework in line with the National Action Plan.
Furthermore, they called for transparent scrutiny of illegal seminaries and any affiliated political organizations to prevent support for extremism and terrorism.
The experts added that greater government oversight of seminaries, standardization of curricula and improvements in educational standards across Pakistan’s religious education sector remained essential.
