Friday, July 29, 2005
Musharraf says all foreign students at madrassas must leave country.
I do think Mushareff is trying. He is walking a very fine line and has the assassination attempts to prove it.
"Any (foreigners) in the madrassas - even dual nationality holders -
will leave Pakistan," Gen Musharraf said.
"We will not allow madrassas to be misused for extremism, hatred being
projected in our society."
No new visas will be issued to foreigners wishing
to study in the schools.
But the BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan says it is not clear
what effect these measures will have on extremism as the more militant students
work at unregulated madrassas that have survived previous crackdowns.It is estimated that there are around 20,000 madrassas in Pakistan.
According to the Pakistani newspaper, The News, there are around 1.7m
students at the institutions, mainly from poor rural families.
The number of foreigners dropped sharply after the 11 September attacks in the US.
New rules after the attacks obliged foreigners to state in their visa applications
where they planned to study. The visas became invalid if they left the
madrassa.
