NEW DELHI: Amid intense global pressure to act against the militant groups after the Pulwama attack, Pakistani authorities on Thursday seized 182 madrasas and took 121 people into preventive detention. The Interior Ministry of Pakistan said 121 people were taken into preventive detention in compliance with the National Action Plan (NAP), according to Geo News.


The provincial governments also took over the management and administrative control of 182 madrasas, 34 schools and colleges, five hospitals, 163 dispensaries, 184 ambulances and eight offices as part of the NAP, the Ministry said.

The operation began this week amid intense global pressure on Pakistan to rein in the militant groups following the February 14 Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans.

The government launched a crackdown against terror groups on Tuesday and arrested the brother and son of JeM Masood Azhar along with 42 others affiliated with the banned terror groups. The government also seized properties belonging to Hafiz Saeed's proscribed Jamaat-ud-Dawa and its charity arm Falah-e-Insaniyat. The two proscribed organisations have been banned by the Interior Ministry of Pakistan under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. They were earlier put on the "watchlist".

Minister for Interior Shehryar Afridi said: "We won't let anyone use Pakistani soil against anyone so that no force can intervene in Pakistan's domestic issues. We are taking the action (on our own)."

Since Balakot strike, India is trying to build maximum pressure on Pakistan on the issue of terrorism. According to sources, India has told the international community that it is not an Indo-Pak issue, but about terrorism.

Forty CRPF jawans were killed on February 14 after a Jaish-e-Mohammed suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a paramilitary bus in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district.

Following the incident, India bombed and destroyed JeM's biggest training camp in Balakot in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 80-km from the Line of Control (LoC). Later, Pakistan carried out a retaliatory strike across the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and attempted to target military installations.

(With inputs from agencies)