While conducting a raid on a madrasa located in Banka district, the Bihar police on Saturday, November 6 seized a cache of weapons that included four pistols and eight cartridges. The raid was conducted after the police received a tip from one of its sources. The madrasa administration claimed that it was a conspiracy to implicate them falsely.
Interestingly, despite recovering illegally hoarded ammunition, the state police have not made any arrests. The superintendent of police revealed that no arrests will be made in this regard, as the ammunition was not recovered from inside the madrasa. The cache was allegedly discovered by police from a cottage outside the madrasa after someone called them when they had almost concluded the raid and guided them to the cottage.
That the Bihar police did not make any arrests does not come as a surprise, given the soft approach police adopt when dealing with the Muslim population in most of the Indian states, not only because the country is constitutionally secular, but also because any action against anyone from the Muslim community by the Indian administration is blown out of proportion, and a distorted version of the story is presented by national as well as international media.
This is not the first time an untoward incident has been reported from a madrasa in India. In June this year, a high-intensity blast ripped through the madrasa in Banki’s Navtolia area. The explosion was strong enough to be heard from the distance of one kilometer. Several neighboring houses suffered damage, and one Islamic cleric was killed in the blast.
The preliminary probe suggested the presence of explosives or gunpowder at the site. “The compound’s front portion comprises the madrasa. It was locked from outside. There is a pathway inside which leads to the mosque, the gates of which were found open. The explosion has caused extensive damage to the seminary building,” the superintendent of police (Banka) Arvind Kumar Gupta disclosed. However, no one, including the cleric of the mosque, was found when the police contingent reached the spot, and the police arrested nobody in that incident, either.
The Uttar Pradesh police arrested six people after recovering illegally stored weapons from the Darul Quran Hamidia Madrasa in UP’s Bijnor district in July 2019. The raid was conducted after the police received a tip. The recovered ammunition included a 32-bore pistol, three country-made pistols, and bullets. Again, in 2015, a 15-year-old student sustained severe injuries in an explosion allegedly caused by explosives piled up in the library of Imdaru Uloom madrasa in the state. The teacher, who had called the student to the library, was reported to have fled the scene.
In December 2017, the Special Operation Group in Rajasthan seized illegal arms worth $15,000 that were to be supplied to a madrasa teacher, Maulana Jahid, who managed to flee as soon as he heard that the weapons had been seized by the authorities.
Back in November of last year, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested 32-year-old Abdul Momin Mondal, a teacher at Raipur Darur Huda Islamia Madrasa in Murshidabad. It was alleged that Abdul was a part of an al-Qaeda cell based in Kerala and West Bengal that was conspiring to carry out jihad terror attacks at various locations around the country. “I have four sons and Abdul is most religious among them. He would often go to the mosque and take part in religious activities,” said his father after his arrest. The agency, however, claimed that Abdul was found involved in a series of conspiratorial meetings with the al-Qaeda cell members. He was allegedly trying to recruit new members of the cell and raise funds for various jihad terror activities.
None of this is unexpected or surprising, as the Home Ministry admitted in the parliament in 2019 that several madrasas in West Bengal’s Burdwan and Murshidabad districts were being used to recruit local youth for jihad terror organizations.
Intelligence information was suggesting that there was an influence of terror elements from Bangladesh behind all this. The Jamia Arabia Bag-e-Jannat Qawmi Madrasa near Benapole checkpost, Uloom Kamil Madrasa at Chapinawabgunj, and Jamia Arabia Imadadul Uloom Madrasa at Faridabad in Bangladesh were reported to be involved in recruiting youth in India for jihad.
But these are not new occurrences that have started to surface only in recent times. All this has been going on in India for decades, but different governments in different times have tried to sweep such cases under the rug, lest they fall out of favor with their voting blocs.
mortimer says
I’m shocked, shocked that jihad is going on in your Islamic school establishment! What sort of Islam are teaching here anyway?
While the Koran (K.8:59) says, ” “The infidels should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare against them whatever arms and weaponry you can muster so that you may terrorize them. They are your enemy and Allah’s enemy.”
But we all know that it simply means, prepare cups of mint tea and flowers and bowls of humus so that you may CHARM THE DIRTY KUFAAR and thus win the CHARM offensive!
(sarc/off)
Infidel says
Previous Indian governments at least had a rationalization for doing this, since they wanted to hold the muslim vote blocks (19% in UP, 27% in W Bengal, 25% in Kerala…). The BJP does not have such a justification: w/o the 15% muslim vote throughout India, they got some 300 seats out of 500+, a thumping majority on their own. Yet, they look the other way on all such activities, while the RSS in the meantime is busy trying to make muslims a group of their own w/ inane statements about muslims sharing the same DNA w/ Hindus
There have been several positive trends out of India despite all this:
‣The ban on fireworks on Diwali this year, which was imposed by both government and the courts in the name of pollution (even though fireworks aren’t in the top 15 even on Diwali) was flouted 2 weeks ago: there were record sales of Diwali fireworks this year, in contrast to the last several years
‣In Gurugram/Gurgaon, Haryana, there were several weeks of muslims forcibly occupying the streets for namaz and doing it despite being forbidden by the courts. Last week, after poll reverses (see subsequent bullet), the police finally cleared it up. Since then, there have been attempts by muslims to do it in other public places and thereby islamize those, but Hindus have started fighting back. In the aftermath of Diwali, they started doing Govardhan Puja (something commemorating Lord Krishna picking up a mountain w/ his pinky finger and using that as an umbrella for the community at Vrindavan) and had the whole area covered w/ cowdung. As a result, the muslims couldn’t offer namaz there, and have for now, given up on it. The Hindu plans are to make that a volleyball court
‣In by-elections throughout India last week, 2 trends emerged. In states where the BJP unapologeticaly pushed back on muslim encroachments, such as in Assam, they won big. In states where they were too timid to act against muslims, they lost big! In W Bengal, where they had failed to retaliate against the ruling party, and also given their silence on the Durga puja riots in Bangladesh, they were wiped out, from a previous high 2 years ago. This is what needed to happen, and is happening. Hopefully, another right leaning Hindutva party emerges to challenge them from the right, where they’ve been taking votes for granted (much like the GOP establishment does in the US)
‣Swami Yati Narsinghnand Saraswati got elevated to the head of an organization of Hindu saints called Juna Akhara, giving him a platform to translate his plans into action. He has already stated that he will plan a move to awaken Hindus in particular, and all non-muslims in general, to muslim plans, based on both their texts as well as their activities. Once he starts publicly endorsing movements like the one in Gurugram above or other Hindu resistance like in Diwali, I’d expect support around him to escalate
Given how wayward the RSS has gone, it’s high time for India to get another Hindutva party that can challenge the BJP on a variety of things, such as letting go of Hindu temples, ending policies selectively aimed at Hindus, reforming education, repealing the places of worship act, and so on
gravenimage says
India: Bihar police raid a madrasa, seize a cache of illegal hoarded weapons
…………
I’m shocked! Shocked! Oh…wait..no, I’m not. This actually happens all oever the world, with Muslims using Mosques as weapons’ magazines.
“The mosques are our barracks, the minarets our bayonets, the domes our helmets and the faithful our soldiers”
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.