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American girl's fate hangs in balance in Pak madrasa
Pakistan's immigration authorities issued immediate deportation orders yesterday for an American girl awaiting an uncertain destiny holed up in an Islamic seminary.

Muna Abanur Mohammed is among the eight students at Jamia Binoria, a leading madrasa in southern port city of Karachi, who were placed on a blacklist last month by Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, due to the expiration of their religious education visas to study Qur'an.

"Yes we have received the deportation orders but we will not hand her over," Maulana Mufti Mohammed Naeem, founder and head of the madrasa, a 12-acre sprawling walled compound seminary, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). "No one could dare come near a one-mile radius of our compound," he said.
"Yes we have received the deportation orders but we will not hand her over," Maulana Mufti Mohammed Naeem, founder and head of the madrasa, a 12-acre sprawling walled compound seminary, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). "No one could dare come near a one-mile radius of our compound," he said.

Senior immigration officers at state Federal Investigation Agency, requesting anonymity, said they had no immediate instructions from the federal authorities to carry out any swoop against the madrasa to remove students holed up inside.

Meanwhile, a US Embassy official in Islamabad said they were closely watching the situation. "We are aware and monitoring the situation," Press Attache Megan Eliss said. A madrasa insider told DPA that the US Embassy was in constant touch with the girl.

So far, out of the eight students, two American teens, known as the Khan brothers, were removed last week by US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Pakistani authorities and sent back to Atlanta, Georgia, following the intervention by US Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas.

Both brothers were evacuated following a documentary "Karachi Kids" shown by US-based Fox Television, which claimed that teens were forced to study at Jamia Binoria. Naeemi said the madrasa would try its level best to negotiate with the Pakistan government for an extension of Muna's visa.
Posted by: Fred 2008-07-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=244808