Mr. Chairman,

A World Bank study that found the number of "Jihadi" madrassas in Pakistan much smaller than popularly believed has been questioned by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based humanitarian outfit. In an article in the Washington Post, Samina Ahmed, the Group's South Asia project director and Andrew Stroehlein, its media director, claim that "Jihadi extremism is still propagated at radical madrassas in Pakistan" and that "these religious schools still preach an insidious doctrine that foments the sectarian %i~lence that is increasingly a threat to the stabilitv of Pakistan .." All this is done :under the direct supervision of Jamaat Islami and Jamiat Ulema Islam, the two major parties of the Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA). The Madrassahs, run by these two parties have been the production units of Jihadis since more than last three decades. Jamaat Islami in particular, has been very vocal in pushing the Muslim youth in general and Pakistanis in particular towards Jihad. The Muslim youth from around the world come to Pakistan to attend the Madrassahs of the two above mentioned parties, where they are brain washed, trained and equipped to commit terrorism in every part of the world.

A number of reports from intelligence units from different countries have discussed the direct link between the Al Qaeda and the component parties of MMA. Most of the International newspapers have run lead stories about the close working relationship between Al Qaeda and Jamaat Islami. It is necessary to remember that most of the Talibans were trained and equipped by the Madrassah run by Jamaat Islami and Jamiat Ulema Islam. Mullah Umar was himself a student of a Madrassah, run directly by JUL

The Jamestown Foundation in its report namely Terrorism Monitor of September 11, 2003 has mentioned `The situation is further complicated by the long-standing ties that exist between al Qaeda and Jamaat Islami, which is one of Pakistan's most influential political parties and which currently has a large representation in the National Assembly. Since the elections of November 2002 Jamaat Islami has also had a role in governing two of the country's four provinces. Even Pakistani Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat has admitted that such ties exist: "All al Qaeda activists and terrorists that have been detained over the past several months are linked to Jamaat Islami." Some members of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a coalition of five Islamic parties that includes Jamaate Islami, are also directly involved in terror. Many members of the front run religious schools that send young Pakistanis to Afghanistan to fight together with Taliban and al Qaeda militants are rewarded. To cite one example, the principal of the school that trained "the American Taliban," John Walker Lindh, was elected to the Senate on the MMA ticket.