Afghanak Home of the afghans افغانک خانه افغانها

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai o­n Thursday said Pakistani religious schools were teaching students to go to Afghanistan to burn down schools or medical clinics.

The comments came in a speech in the eastern province of Kunar, next to the border with Pakistan.

"We have credible reports that inside Pakistan, in the madrassas, the mullahs and teachers are saying to their students: 'Go to Afghanistan for jihad. Burn the schools and clinics,"' Karzai said.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, dismissed Karzai's comments.

"These are baseless allegations and we have denied them repeatedly," Aslam said.

Karzai said Afghanistan was suffering from terror attacks, and implied that they came from Pakistan's lawless tribal regions in the mountainous border area.

"We want to tell the Pakistani government, which is our brother government ... that terrorism is like fire, and it will reach you too," he said. "Today terrorism is in Afghanistan. Tomorrow it will reach you."

Pakistan's religious schools have ties to influential religious and political groups, and poor families often count o­n the nation's more than 10,000 madrassas to take o­ne or more young sons to ease financial strains at home.

The boys typically receive little more than Quranic studies for an education. But the big dividend for families is the housing, clothes and meals offered the boys.

The schools, which have up to 1 million students, operate with almost no official oversight.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a long border where Afghan and U.S. officials say the elements of the ousted Taliban regime are hiding.

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is also believed to be hiding in the mountainous region.