ISLAMABAD: Pakistan says it has it has taken control of 182 madrassas and detained more than 100 people as part of its push against banned groups.
Pakistan's interior ministry said it was part of a long-planned drive, not a response to Indian anger over what New Delhi calls Islamabad's failure to rein in terror groups operating on Pakistani soil.
Provincial governments in Pakistan have "taken in their control management and administration of 182 seminaries (madaris)", Pakistan's interior ministry said in a statement, referring to religious schools and.
"Law enforcement agencies have taken 121 people under preventive detention as of today," the Pakistani ministry added.
What to do with madrassas is a thorny issue in Pakistan, a deeply conservative Muslim nation, where such schools are the only option available to millions of poor children.
Pakistan also took control of the assets belonging to alleged Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its wing Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.
