Global General

US cable: Gulf countries fund Pakistani militancy

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-05-22 19:11

ISLAMABAD - A US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks says donors in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are sending an estimated $100 million annually to radical Islamic schools in Pakistan that back militancy.

The cable says the donations have been made "ostensibly with the direct support" of the Saudi and Emirati governments. The schools target poor boys in southern Punjab province for indoctrination and send some of them off to military training to fight against the Pakistani government and the West.

The cable was written in November 2008 and was based on local government and nongovernment sources. It was published Sunday by Dawn, one of Pakistan's most respected English-language newspapers. Dawn received more than 4,000 such cables in a deal with WikiLeaks.