By Aamir Latif
KARACH, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan on Friday said it had taken control of a religious seminary believed to have served as headquarters of a militant group which claimed responsibility for last week's deadly attack in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops.
Jamiatul Sabir, located in Bahawalpur city of northeastern Punjab province, has a 70-member faculty and over 600 students, an Interior Ministry notification said.
Shahbaz Gill, provincial government spokesman, told local Geo News that authorities had taken control of the seminary and mosque, affiliated with Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), in light of recommendations by the National Security Council, a top civil-military defense body.
“We have so far no evidence that the madrassa [seminary] serves as a terrorist facility. The move is part of the government’s ongoing plan of regularizing the madrassas across the country,” Gill said.
He said the seminary would now be run through a government administrator.
India has long been calling upon the UN Security Council to declare JeM chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist, however, Islamabad’s longtime ally China has time and again used its veto power to block the move.
The move comes a day after a ban on Jamat-ud-Dawah, another militant group accused of being involved in 2009 Mumbai terror attack which killed over 150 people.
Tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors have risen after India blamed Pakistan for the latest attack in which an explosive-laden vehicle rammed into a paramilitary bus along the Jammu-Kashmir highway.
Islamabad denied the accusation, offering to open investigation if “actionable evidence ” is provided by New Delhi.
Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.
Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars — in 1948, 1965 and 1971 — two of them over Kashmir.
