LAHORE: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan admits there have been 20 seminaries in the province whose students or faculty had the history of being involved in terrorism or just being facilitators.

`There have been 20 Madaris with the history that their students or teachers have been facilitators ordirectly involved in acts of terrorism,` he told the Press Gallery Committee of the Punjab Assembly here on Tuesday.

All these Madaris had been thoroughly searched and now no religious school was involved in training of militants or other matters (of militancy), he added.

Responding to a query, the minister said operation against militants in south Punjab had been started from the day Zarb-e-Azboperation was launched (in Waziristan).

He claimed that so far 13,787 seminaries with one million students in the province had been geo-tagged, and now history of each and every student was being verified.

He told a questioner that 532 seminaries were raided and 1,100 suspects were taken into custody from there and they were being interrogated now.

Replying to another query regarding the involvement of some university graduates in Safoora (Karachi) incident, Rana Sana said hostels of universities and colleges were also searched whenever there was any information about the presence of extremists there but refused to share details until investigation was complete.

Answering a question about the forthcoming local body polls, he said the polls would be held in phases in the province on a suggestion by the Election Commission while the number of votes to be castby a voter simultaneously had been reduced from seven to twoone for chairman and vice-chairman of a union council and the other for electing a general councilor.

Defending the decision of electing women, labourers and minorities representatives indirectly on reserved seats in union council level elections, he argued that the same system was already in vogue at tehsil, district, provincial and National Assembly level.

The changes, he said, would result in better election management unlike in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where many people had lost their lives in polling-related disputes.