DUSHANBE, October 27, 2010, Asia-Plus – Twenty underground religious schools with a total of 189 students have been discovered over the past week in Tajikistan''s southern Khatlon province alone, RFE/RL''s Tajik Service reported on October 26.

Khatlon police chief Abdurahmon Buzmakov said on October 25 that the private unregistered schools, some based in the homes of mullahs, were illegal.  He said 20 teachers who were detained in the past week did not have formal permission from the Committee on Religious Affairs and local administrations to teach Islamic studies to children. Up to 130 children have been studying in such schools in the Qubodiyon and Qumsangir districts.

In recent years, authorities have intensified their control over non-government teaching, and RFE/RL reports from Qurghon Teppa that many parents now opt to teach their children about religion at home.

Tajikistan''s president and education minister have called on parents to bring home their children studying at Islamic universities abroad lest they become "terrorists and extremists." Dozens of such students have already returned to Tajikistan.