Students to be removed from Pakistan

KARACHI - Pakistani authorities are preparing to send home 648 foreign students studying at Islamic religious schools in the southern Sindh province, says a senior Government official.

"There are some 648 foreign students studying in madrasas in the province, of which 591 are in Karachi," Ghulam Mohtaram, Home Secretary of Sindh, told reporters in Karachi.

President Pervez Musharraf banned foreign students coming to Pakistan for religious education after the July 7 London bombings and because of reports some Islamic religious schools, or madrasas, were militant recruiting grounds.

He said all the foreign students in Pakistani madrasas would be asked to leave the country.

A Pakistani official earlier said around 1400 overseas students, mostly from Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, were enrolled in Pakistani madrasas and would be sent home.

Mohtaram, however, said the authorities had set no time-limit for sending back the students as a lot of logistics were involved in the deportation process.

- REUTERS