23 March 2019

Terrorism fears as 3,000 UK children a year go to 'jihadi' schools in Pakistan, secret government report reveals

A secret Government report has warned that more than 3,000 British children are being taken to Pakistan each year and enrolled in extremist summer schools.

The chilling Home Office study says courses at madrasas teach a 'glorified version of jihad', according to a source.

Officials fear some youngsters will be radicalised and return to the UK with a warped ideology and pose a terrorism risk.

'It is highly likely that this education in Pakistan, even for short periods of time, increases the risk of exposure to extremism for British-Pakistani children,' the source told The Mail on Sunday.

'Enrolment at madrasas poses the greatest risk of exposure to more serious forms of religious extremism.'

Two of the 7/7 bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, enrolled on madrasa courses in Pakistan a year before they launched their deadly attack in 2005, which killed 52.

But the security services have established that some Pakistani parents take their children back to their native homeland during summer holidays under the pretext of visiting extended family.

In reality, they sign them up for lessons at some of Pakistan's estimated 20,000 madrasas. [Daily Mail] Read more