They draw millions of poor Pakistani children with the simple promise of free educationwinzir, meals and housing. For devout families, they offer Islamic learning rooted in ancient tradition.

But to the Pakistani government and Western counterterrorism officials, the religious seminaries known as madrasas also represent a potential threat. The institutions have long been accused of contributing to violence and radicalization, supplying recruits for the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other militant groups.

Now, Pakistan’s Islamic schools are at the center of an intense political clash — one that jeopardizes years of hard-won progress toward bringing the seminaries under the government’s regulatory umbrella.

The conflict goes back to 2019, when the government enacted a sweeping overhaul requiring madrasas to register with the Ministry of Education. The effort, meant to increase accountability for institutions that have historically operated with minimal state oversight, was strongly backed by Pakistan’s military but faced vehement resistance from Islamist political parties.

The idea, briefly floated behind closed doors, seemed to fizzle, and Mr. Trump did not publicly repeat it as experts questioned whether such a model would even be possible. But in the weeks since, Mr. Trump has floated ideas that, taken together, would fundamentally change the way Americans are taxed, eroding the income tax while embracing expansive tariffs as a way to raise federal revenue.

The police believe the person whom the gunmen were targeting was among those killed, Scott Thurmond, the city’s police chief, said at a news conference on Sunday morning. He said the shooters had approached the scene in a vehicle, got out, opened fire and then fled in the vehicle. The police said they believed the shooters had used machine gun conversion devices, which alter semiautomatic weapons so that a single pull of the trigger can empty a gun’s entire magazine.

In October 2024, the largest of those parties, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, secured a deal with the government to end the registration requirement. Under the agreement, madrasas would be registered as they had been before 2019, under a colonial-era law governing charitable, scientific and educational groups. That law provides little oversight of curriculums, activities or funding.

In exchange, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam agreed to support unrelated constitutional amendments on judicial appointments that had set off a firestorm of controversy.

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