This is not a hidden fact; so far, anti-India mentality, radical ideology and foreign funding have come to the fore from many madrasas. When the government tightens its grip on them, the so-called organisations get nervous, as Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind is behaving right now. The organisation’s president, Maulana Arshad Madani, alleged that despite the court’s ban, one-sided action is going on against not only madrasas but also dargahs, Idgahs and graveyards in the border districts of UP adjoining Nepal. So far, hundreds of madrasas have been declared unconstitutional and sealed. Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind is going to organise a “Madrasa Suraksha Sammelan” on June 1, 2025, at Jamia Sharia Faizul Uloom, Sarai Mir, Azamgarh, with the objective of registering its strong protest against it (the government) and to decide the strategy for advice and consultation of the officials of madrasas. In this conference, the officials and officials of madrasas of all sects have been invited to participate, and the entire responsibility of organising and managing the conference has been entrusted to Maulana Arshad Rashidi, President of Jamiat Ulama Uttar Pradesh.
Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind President Maulana Arshad Madani has many allegations against those governments, which are working to demolish illegal or unrecognised madrasas. Maulana Madani said, “Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind believes that the campaign launched to close down madrasas by declaring them unconstitutional, first in Uttarakhand and now in Uttar Pradesh, is very dangerous. Right now it has started only in the border districts of Nepal, but tomorrow not only can its scope increase, but difficulties can also be created in setting up new madrasas…” That is why Jamiat is talking about going to court again. But if we take the data related to the big incidents in the last few years, then we will understand how anti-national activities have been carried out in illegal madrasas.
On March 1 this year, the Doon Express narrowly escaped derailment near the railway station in Hardoi district of Uttar Pradesh. The police arrested two minor boys. Both of them had obstructed the train track. Both of them were studying in the same madrasa. In another incident, a madrasa manager and four others in Shravasti were arrested on charges of running a fake Indian currency racket. The manager has been identified as Mubarak Ali alias Noori, who used a room in the madrasa to print fake notes. He has three wives. Mubarak Ali used to give fake notes to his wives, who circulated them in the markets and nearby towns and spent them according to their wishes. This case also came to light in January this year. The NIA and ATS also got clues of the madrasa connection behind the conspiracy to overturn trains in Jhansi and Kanpur. According to the clues, youth are brainwashed using online mediums. Through this, the youth who become radical are used in anti-national activities. They also have connections with madrasas. To connect the links to this, the investigating agencies raided many places. Here, madrasa teacher Mufti Khalid Nadvi was interrogated for 18 hours.
Similarly, in the case of illegal conversion in UP, the court convicted 12 accused, including Umar Gautam and sentenced them to life imprisonment and four accused to ten years each. They were also punished with fines. In this decision, which came in September 2024, it was found that Mohammad Umar Gautam converted women, children and other vulnerable people to Islam in UP and other states by mass conversion. Charge sheets were filed against 17 accused, including Kaushar Alam. In which the accused Kaushar Alam, Dr Faraz Wallah Shah, Prasad Rameshwar, Arsalan Mustafa, Umar Gautam, Mufti Qazi Jahangir, Irfan Sheikh, Salauddin Sheikh, Mohammad Kaleem Siddiqui, Dheeraj Govind, Sarfaraz Ali, Abdullah Umar, were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment and Mannu Yadav alias Mannan, Rahul Bhola, Mohammad Salim, and Kunal Chaudhary alias Atif were sentenced to ten years each.
If we look deeply into this whole matter, we will understand its horror. Irfan Sheikh (Irfan Khan) – Interpreter at Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre, New Delhi, who had easy access to physically handicapped children. Salahuddin Zainuddin Sheikh – Businessman from Gujarat, who received money from various sources. Prasad Rameshwar Kanwar (Adam) – Admin of WhatsApp group ‘Revert, Rehab and Dawah’ in Maharashtra, who spread religious hatred and lured people to join Islam.
Arsalan Mustafa (Bhoopirya Bandho) – Prasad’s associate, who was a cupping therapy expert and provided funds for religious conversion. Maulana Kalim Siddiqui – Operating the biggest religious conversion syndicate across the country, who ran the Waliullah Trust in the name of social harmony. Dhanraj Govind Rao Jagtap – Associate of the mastermind in Gujarat and Maharashtra. Sarfaraz Ali Jafri- Worked with Maulana Kalim Siddiqui, who was involved in illegal religious conversion since 2016. Mufti Jahangir Alam Qasmi- President of Islamic Dawah Centre (IDC) in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, who involved around 1,000 individuals in illegal religious conversion. Abdullah Umar- Son of mastermind Umar Gautam. Kaushar Alam- Associate of Prasad. Faraz Babullah Shah- Associate of Prasad. Helped in preparing documents.
Mannu Yadav- Visually and hearing impaired, he lured specially abled children to join Islam. Rahul Bhola- Visually and hearing impaired, he lured specially abled children to join Islam. Kunal Ashok Chaudhary (Atif)- Converted to Islam during medical studies in Russia and was running a medical clinic illegally in Nashik. Mohammad Salim- Director of Jamiatul Imam Waliullah Al-Islami Madrasa. Here, understand that do not go by the names of those whose names sound like Hindus; all of them have become Islamists. All of them, by organising themselves, were spoiling the harmony of the country by creating a feeling of animosity and hatred towards their original religion among non-Muslims, by spreading it in different parts of the country. More than a thousand such cases were found in which the police confirmed in their investigation that religious conversion was done.
In fact, today, those who are having trouble with the action against illegal or unrecognised madrasas should look at this matter. The printing of fake notes in the illegal madrasa Jamia Habibia of Atarsuiya Madrasa in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, was revealed on August 28, 2024. In the case, the acting principal of the madrasa, Maulvi Mohammad Tafsirul and the gang leader Zahir Khan came to light. Zahir Khan is a student of Alim in the madrasa. He is originally from Odisha. This madrasa was unrecognised. It was registered with the Registrar Chit and Fund Society. When the police raided the place, three people were caught printing fake notes. They were printing fake notes of Rs 100. Immediately, Rs 1.3 lakh fake notes were recovered, and they looked exactly like the real ones. 70 children were found studying in this unrecognised madrasa.
One incident is related to Mohammad Abdul Awwal (37), who came to live in Shram Vihar, Jamia Nagar, Okhla and New Delhi after completing 12th standard under the madrasa education system from Nadwa in Lucknow. He was arrested after the ATS found several illegal bank accounts. The name of an NGO, Sun Shine Health and Social Welfare Trust, also came up, and it was found that there was a case of FCRA (Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act) violation here. It allegedly diverted ‘donations’ through suspicious accounts opened in the name of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. The ATS came to know about these accounts when Mohammad Abdul Awal of Assam was arrested from New Delhi. Investigation revealed that the accused, along with NGO operator Abdul Gaffar, transferred the donated amount in small amounts to these accounts and then withdrew it. He said that the NGO had received funds from many European countries in the name of social welfare. Mohammad Abdul Awal confessed during interrogation that donations worth about Rs 20 crore were diverted in three years.
On September 2, 2023, the Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested five people, including ISIS terrorist Mohammad Shahnawaz alias Shafi Uzzama. Apart from Shahnawaz, the other 4 were identified as Mohammad Ashraf Rizwan and Mohammad Arshad Warsi. All three are engineers by profession. They were planning to carry out IED blasts in North India. Many well-known people were also on their target. They had done recce at different places. Training camps were also set up at many places. Out of these, Ashraf Rizwan has studied at Madrasa Falaha in Bilariaganj, Azamgarh. Mohammad Rizwan, who came to Azamgarh in the year 2001, lived in the hostel of the madrasa in Azamgarh till the year 2008. Completed Alimiyat education in Arabic in 2008. He was also active in Prayagraj as a Maulana. According to Delhi Police, Rizwan was conspiring with terrorist Shahnawaz to carry out a major terrorist incident on the occasion of the upcoming festival in Ayodhya and Delhi.
On January 23 this year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), along with a team from the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (UP ATS), raided the residence of a madrasa teacher in the Gonda district. The raids were carried out simultaneously at eight different locations across the country, including Gonda (UP), Sikar and Jaipur (Rajasthan), Delhi, Valsad and Surat (Gujarat) and Kasargod (Kerala). Security agencies also seized gold items, hard drives, phones, memory cards, and debit cards from the houses of those raided. The raids were conducted to probe the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) terror funding case after the arrest of Mohammad Hussain Molani from Nagaur in Rajasthan on January 21. It is worth noting here that this organisation was founded by Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa in 1990 by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who has been declared a “global terrorist”. It is a front-end organisation of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terrorist organisation banned under UAPA. In this case, it was found out about the madrasa teacher arrested from Gonda district that this Maulana teaches the Arabic language.
Going back to this incident, Sherkot police of Bijnor district had exposed the game of supplying weapons in a madrasa. Police recovered a stock of weapons from the madrasa. A Swift Dzire car used to supply weapons has also been found in the madrasa. Weapons were supplied in the madrasa under the guise of Hikmat. Police have arrested six accused, including the madrasa operator from the madrasa. This is Madrasa Darul Quran Hameed, located on Kandla Road in Sherkot. The police arrested Faim Ahmed, a resident of Mohalla Shekhan in Seohara; Sajid, a resident of Sherkot; Zafar Islam, a resident of Mohalla Afghanan in Dhampur; Sikandar Ali, a resident of Fatehpur Jamal village in Afzalgarh, Sabir, resident of Bihar and Azizur Rehman, resident of Sherkot from the madrasa. Sajid is the operator of the madrasa.
Actually, today, both these situations are in front of everyone; on one side, there is Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind and many Islamic organisations like them, who want to run unrecognised and illegal madrasas on the basis of minority rights granted in the Constitution. On the other hand, there are governments of many states in the country, who say that if the madrasa is found involved in terrorist activities, with jihadi thinking or teaching fundamentalism or operating without registration, then the government will close it down at any cost. It has to be said that the people of the country are thoughtful; now they should decide. What is right and what is wrong for India. Should such illegal, unrecognised madrassas, which have been found to be involved in terrorist activities many times and many terrorists have been caught, continue to operate or should the government continue to strictly shut down all such unrecognised activities? Strict action should be taken against them so that a system to prevent crime is created.
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