On Tuesday, the Sashastra Seema Bal in Uttar Pradesh flagged sudden growth in the numbers of mosques and madrasas located in and around 15 km of the border with Nepal. The state of Uttar Pradesh shares 570 km of border with Nepal and has reported a massive increase in the number of mosques in the last two years.
This is months after the Uttar Pradesh government had ordered the State Police to keep a watch on the mosques and madrasas in the border area. It was reported that the 257 new built mosques in Uttar Pradesh along the border of Nepal are involved in terror-funding activities. There were also reports to suggest that funds for these mosques and madrasas were being sent from Pakistan and Islamic fundamentalist groups like Dawat-e-Islamia.
The officials have noted that the number of mosques in the border areas of Nepal has increased from 738 in 2018 to 1,000 in 2021 and the number of madrasas has risen from 500 in 2018 to 645 in 2021. The India-Nepal border area in the states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh has seen 400 mosques and madrasas growing up in the past 10 years. With this the Muslim population in the areas has also increased in an institutionalized manner.
As per the report, most of the mosques and madrasas have been recently built in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich, Basti, and Gorakhpur areas and the population of Muslims has also grown in these regions. This supports the local’s suspicion that the Muslim settlement is being done in a planned manner there.
The Sashastra Sena Bal meanwhile has flagged several mosques and madrasas in seven district of Uttar Pradesh named Maharajganj, Siddharth Nagar, Balrampur, Bahraich, Shravasti, Pilibhit and Khiri. According to SSB officials, the construction of mosques and madrasas has seen an increase of about 26% in the last three years, indicating demographic changes in the border areas. Moreover, smuggling of counterfeit Indian currency and drug peddling has also increased along the UP-Nepal border.
The Siddharth Nagar area in Uttar Pradesh was also in news last year for reporting a 4 times increase in the number of mosques and madrasas since the last 20 years. At present, there are 597 new mosques alone in Siddharth Nagar and 145 of them have no records. Officials have suspicion that these mosques receive regular funding from Pakistan, Dubai and other Gulf countries.
