Pakistan police rescue 45 students chained in madrassa

[cosmicone]

KARACHI: Pakistani police rescued 45 students found chained in the basement during a raid late Monday on a madrassa in the southern port city of Karachi, police said.

Officers also arrested two clerics at the Madrassa Zakarya in Karachi's central Sohrab Goth area but the head of the seminary managed to escape, police official Mukhtiar Khaskheli told AFP.

"At least 18 of those chained are aged 20 or younger, while the rest are older," Khaskheli said. Some Islamic schools in Pakistan are accused of training militants and supporting violent extremist groups, with some dispatching fighters to neighbouring Afghanistan.

"The madrassa officials claim that they had chained those students because they were drug addicts and they wanted to rehabilitate them and make them better Muslims," the police official said. Khaskheli said a full scale investigation had been started which would also inquire about any possible links with militants.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pakistan-police-rescue-45-students-chained-in-madrassa/articleshow/11094694.cms

This is a positive step for Pakistan. I wish they would shut down all the madrassas and give students conventional education instead.

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, cosmicone.

[Samba]

2. pics

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/13/9421072-pakistani-police-rescue-chained-students-from-seminary-in-karachi

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Yikes!

[Little Tich]

5. After seeing the pictures I'm glad the police raided the place.

It must have been awful for the "students" there. There are always sick people preying on the poor, giving promises to help them in return for their souls. Ostensibly, they are helping drug addicts to overcome their addiction by promoting a God-fearing lifestyle, but actually it's brainwash.

[JCMach1]

4. madrassa just means 'school' in Arabic- In Pakistan there is no coordinated system of public

education. Hence, every private school is essentially a madrassa.

If you mean Koranic brainwashing academies... Pakistan has made some effort to shut these down.

Here it seems like a former terrorist breeding school mutated into an abusive hell-hole to 'cure' drug addicts.