Pakistan cracks down on 180 madrassas, freezes bank accounts linked to militancy

Pakistan has sealed over 180 religious seminaries and frozen over 120 bank accounts linked to extremist and militant activities since the Peshawar school terror attack, reports said, as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a meeting on Monday to review the counter-terror steps taken under the National Action Plan. 

The crackdown on religious seminaries happened under the National Action Plan Pakistan had adopted in January 2015, a month after the deadly Taliban attack on an army public school in Peshawar in which more than 130 students were killed.

Three madrassas were raided in Pakistan's volatile Quetta region on Monday, and the clerics from the seminaries taken for interrogation, according to Dawn. 

Pakistan Army chief Raheel Sharif was also present at the meeting on the review of counter-terror measures on Monday, according to the official website of the prime minister's office.

Last month, Pakistani authorities sealed religious schools run by the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group after India accused it of perpetrating the Pathankot terror attack on an Indian Air Force base in Punjab on 2 January. 

The  State Bank of Pakistan has also reportedly frozen 1 billion Pakistani rupees in 126 accounts linked to militant and terror groups. 

Reports last month had said 2,159 terrorists had been killed in counter-terror measures under the plan.

However, despite the offensive on terrorists, Pakistan continues to be hit by terror strikes.

Last month, a terror attack on the Bacha Khan University close to Peshawar left 21 people dead.