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Two students show a notice issued by Pakistan's government to leave the country.
ISLAMABAD, January 1, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An umbrella body representing religious schools (madrassahs) in Pakistan has vowed to resist a government's decision to expel foreign students attending religious classes in the country.
"We reject the decision by (President Pervez) Musharraf to expel foreign students," Maulana Abdul Rahman of the Ittehad Tanzimat Madaris Deeniya, the Alliance of Organizations of Religious Schools, told Al-Jazeera news television on Sunday, January 1.
Around 1,000 religious party leaders and heads and representatives of madrassahs from across the country attended a country-wide convention Sunday to discuss Musharraf's decision to expel foreign students by the end of 2005.
"We will also stage nationwide protests to pressure Musharraf to reverse his decision which violates human rights conventions," Abdul Rahman stressed.
Musharraf had ordered foreign students studying in Pakistani madrassahs leave the country by December 31, following the July 7 terrorist attacks in London.
Around 700 foreign students, out of a total of 1,400, have since left the country, but hundreds remain, according to Pakistani officials.
The number of foreign students attending madrassahs has already fallen sharply since the government imposed tougher visa restrictions after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
There are around 12,000 madrassahs in Pakistan, often offering free religious education and board for more than one million Pakistani children, especially in areas neglected by state education services.
"No Expulsion"
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Students recite the Qur'an at a religious school in Peshawar. (Reuters)
Many foreign students have refused to obey the government order to leave the country by December 31.
"I don't want to leave Pakistan . I came to learn Qur'an as I has not yet completed my religious education," a nine-year-old Eritrean student told the Doha-based broadcaster.
On Saturday, December 31, some 21 foreign students were arrested in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Most of them are from Bangladesh , Kenya, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, sources told Daily Times.
Another 94 students were also warned to leave the country as soon as possible.
Softening its position, the Pakistani government said Friday, December 30, foreign students should leave "as soon as possible" instead of by December 31.
"As far as we are concerned, we have no deadline, or any plan to expel them," Amanullah Haqqani, religious affairs minister in the conservative North West Frontier Province, told Reuters on Saturday.
A majority of the foreign students, most of them Afghans, are studying in NWFP.
"Secondly, we want the federal government to review its decision as it is a matter of pride for Pakistan to impart religious education to foreign students."
Hiccups
Analysts said the government's decision to soften its stance on expelling foreign students was due to hiccups in implementation.
"The government had taken the decision under international pressure, and all this seems to be disorganized and hurriedly done," Mutahir Ahmad, assistant professor of International Relations at the University of Karachi, told Reuters.
"There has been wide opposition to the government's decision, especially in NWFP. Plus, the public sentiment is not the same as it was in 2001, after the 9/11 events," he added.
Pakistan saw a spectacular rise in the number of madrassahs in the 1980s, when the schools, backed by funding from the West and Arab countries, became recruiting grounds for volunteers fighting Soviet occupation forces in neighboring Afghanistan.