Authorities said Wednesday that an investigation into a suspected terror facilitation network had uncovered alleged links between illegal seminaries, extortion and misuse of religious rulings to support militant activities.
According to authorities, local facilitators used unregistered seminaries to obtain religious decrees under the guise of religion to justify acts of terrorism.
The arrested suspect, identified as self-styled cleric Mufti Zafar Yab, was found to have been associated with Jamia Nizamul Uloom in Bannu and a faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), according to authorities.
Officials said the revelations by the suspect highlighted the need to bring illegal seminaries under the Directorate General of Religious Education (DGRE) into line with the National Action Plan.
According to investigators, the suspect said he completed the eight years Dars-e-Nizami program at Jamia Nizamul Uloom’s Yateem Khana branch in Bannu before obtaining a three-year specialization in Islamic Jurisprudence (Takhassus fi al-Fiqh) from 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 sought religious rulings from him to justify blackmail and intimidate wealthy individuals 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 return for supporting the group’s activities.
He also stated that the group the state refers to as Fitna al-Khawarij had no connection with Islam and followed an ideology that justified the killing of Muslims. The Pakistani state uses the term Fitna al-Khawarij to refer to terrorists associated with the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Security and religious affairs experts, cited by authorities, said the revelations suggested militant groups were exploiting illegal seminaries and self-appointed pastors to advance 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 the registration of seminaries.
The experts said the recent revelations underscored the need to bring unregistered seminaries under the DGRE legislative framework in line with the National Action Plan.
They further called for transparent control of illegal seminaries and any associated political organizations to prevent support for extremism and terrorism.
The experts added that stronger government oversight of seminaries, standardization of curricula and improvements in educational standards across Pakistan’s religious education sector remained essential.
