2 July 2009
FT — Farhan Bokhari
As Pakistan basks in the praise of western officials over its offensive against Islamist militants, concerns are mounting that Islamic madrassah schools in the populous provinces of Sindh and Punjab may provide a beachhead for radicalism.
Security officials last year counted more than 560 madrassahs in and around Karachi, the country’s largest city and financial centre and the capital of Sindh province, according to a report seen by the Financial Times. Schools in the report were noted for “training for arms and pupils sent to Afghanistan and Kashmir”, “famous for extremist teachings and armed students”, “arms on site” and “foreign armed students”.
Pervez Musharraf, then president, promised in 2002 to address links between Islamic schools and militant groups, but made little headway in establishing authority over themadrassahs.
The schools have since been linked to terrorist incidents, such as the 2005 London bombings.
The Karachi madrassah schools “are in danger of becoming a watering hole for militants leaving places like Swat [the valley that was briefly controlled by the Taliban this year before the army launched an offensive to restore control] and seeking refuge if they can reach Karachi”, said a western diplomat.
Nadeem Shahid, a tailor in one of Karachi’s poorest neighbourhoods, sent his son to a madrassah , but is now deeply disillusioned about their ethos.
“I made the fatal mistake of my life when I sent my own son to a madrassah,” he said. “I had no money to send him to a good school, while the madrassah offered free education, free lodging and free food.”
The schooling turned Mr Shahid’s son, now a teenager, into a radical. “There have been so many times my son has simply vanished for weeks or even a few months,” he said. “Whenever he has returned, he has brought back stories of going for this jihad or that jihad.”
The father of eight added that the government’s advance in Swat was “not really important till my son returns home for good”.
The schools are especially concentrated in poorer neighbourhoods such as Mr Shahid’s and have multiplied over the past 30 years. Many received funding and support from the US Central Intelligence Agency and Pakistani intelligence services during the Islamic resistance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Karachi is deemed particularly vulnerable to the influence of madrassahs because of its large Pashtun population. The ethnic group is predominant along both sides of the border with Afghanistan and has formed the backbone of Taliban forces.
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