Two Nepalese religious students left Pakistan yesterday, the first of more than 1,400 foreigners set to be deported in a government drive to curb extremism at the nationâs Islamic schools. Ahmad Ali, 20, and Shabnum Shagufa, 19, students at the Jamia Naeemia madrassa in the eastern city of Lahore, decided to return to Nepal after authorities warned that foreign students at madrasas could be arrested unless they left the country by September. âI feel sad that I could not complete my education,â Ali told The Associated Press before crossing by land into India. He said that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had âwrongly punished foreign students.â We are peace-loving people. We are against terrorism. What was our fault? ... Does the government have any charge against us?âAli had been studying at the madrasa for four years, and needed four more years to complete his studies. Shagufa, who is Aliâs aunt, had been there for three years. Musharraf is facing international pressure to curb extremism in the thousands of seminaries across Pakistan â particularly after reports emerged that two of the bombers in the attacks that killed 56 people on the London transport system on July 7 had visited Pakistan and may have gone to madrasas. Most of the madrasas in Pakistan are funded by
Since the 1980s, madrasas have been a recruiting ground for militant groups fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir, but they also provide an education for hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis poorly served by the state schooling system. Musharraf has faced criticism at home for the plan to expel foreign students, with opponents, particularly from religious-based parties, saying it is unjustified.