Karachi: At least 13 men have gone missing mysteriously in a southern Pakistan district while travelling on a bus to attend a wedding ceremony.

The 13 young men, all friends, had left Karachi at 9pm for Hyderabad to attend the wedding ceremony of a common friend. They were in contact with their respective families up until Jamshoro district, some 170 kilometres north of Karachi, but later were unreachable.

They were residents of Noman Grand City, a residential complex in Gulistane Jauhar neighbourhood in the eastern part of the city.

Their families staged a sit-in protest and blocked the Rashid Minhas Road to protest, calling on authorities to find them at the earliest.

They burnt tyres and other things to block the road and jam traffic. Official sources said the province’s home minister had taken the notice of the missing people and ordered the inspector-general of police to ensure their return.

Geo-mapping of seminaries

Meanwhile, in order to continue its clampdown on the nerve-centre of militancy, the provincial government has decided to carry out the geo-mapping of the madrasas or the religious seminaries.

The decision was taken in the light of a recommendation made by Apex Committee in its earlier meetings, for provincial governments to take steps to regulate madrasas.

The government has drawn up a four-page form to be given to administrators at all the seminaries to be filled-in.

The forms require madrasas to provide all the relevant data of students and teachers registered with them.

The information required includes names of former teachers and students as well.

The seminaries would also be asked to disclose the sources of their funding and the duration of the courses for which students stay at their hostels.

In Karachi, the number of registered seminaries is 1,266 and the largest concentration of the madrasas is in the western district, where 398 religious schools are situated.

The Apex Committee, in its last meeting, was told that at least three dozen madrasas in Karachi were linked with extremism and militancy.