Govt takes over control of banned outfit’s mosques, madaris

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad administration on Wednesday took over control of mosques and madaris being operated by proscribed organizations in Islamabad.

Sources privy to the matter said, Quba Masjid, Madni Masjid, Ali Asghar Masjid, Madrassah Khalid bin Waleed and Madrassah Zia-ul-Quran have been taken into control by the city’s administration.

Meanwhile, new imams and preachers have also been appointed by the Auqaf Department in the mosques and the madaris.

Maulana Yaseen of Masjid Quba has been replaced as a preacher by Maulana Abdul Hafeez, while Maulana Azhar Abbasi has been removed as a preacher and replaced with Maulana Umar Farooq.

Earlier in the day, Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi had said that a crackdown against proscribed organisations will continue until the intended objectives are not achieved.

Read more: Minister vows to keep up action against banned outfits until achieving goals

In a tweet message he said, “Operation against proscribed organisations as per National Action Plan 2014 (NAP) shall continue till achievement of objective”.

Yesterday, the minister had said 44 persons belonging to banned organisations had been taken into custody as per the directives of National Security Committee (NSC).

He said that Pakistan was acting against the banned groups in its own interest and there was no external pressure whatsoever on the country.