Most madrasas don't preach jihadi ideas, intel agencies tell MHA

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Most madrasas don't preach jihadi ideas, intel agencies tell MHA

Intelligence agencies in a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) have said that majority of madrasas in the country were not involved in "jihadi indoctrination", and a survey was being carried out to identify the institutions where people from other countries were employed as teachers.

Officials said they were in the process of verifying the identity and the nationality of teaching staff in madarsas in the border areas as they could belong to neighbouring Bangladesh and Pakistan, and might be working here on fake identity papers.

In a year-long study, conducted secretly by a combination of central agencies, it was found that though there was no regulation on the number of madrasas and the content they taught, nothing objectionable was found in their teaching.

A senior ministry official said only four states — West Bengal, UP, Bihar and Kerala — so far have regulated madrasas. "The most important thing is that madrasas where teachers were locals, nothing objectionable was found. However, probe into the Burdwan blast has revealed that a person from Bangladesh was running a madrasa and was giving training in jihadi ideology to the girl students. So far, we have not found any other instance where foreigners were teaching in Indian madrasas, but there could be a case of fake identity," said an official.

According to the data available with the government, there are around 1,700 madrasas along the Bangladesh border, all located within 20 kilometres of the International border (IB) in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya.

One of the other reasons attributed to the mushrooming of these religious institutions as per the report was "unemployment". The report said that since most education in the madrasas is religious and not up to date with the curriculum being taught in other schools, the children studying there did not have any employment opportunities.
Most madrasas don’t preach jihadi ideas, intel agencies tell MHA | The Indian Express

The survey is still be undertaken and one is not sure if those who teach do not have fake identities. This is an important aspect.

It is heartening to note that none have been found to be teaching jihadi literature or activities. Yet, it is odd to know that the education is not formalised and yet it is claimed that the madarsa are there to reduce 'unemployment'. One wonder how these two issues are compatible.

It is interesting to note that density of madarsas within 20 kms of the border.

In the Burdwan blast, fake identities including fake Voters ID and ration cards have been found in abundance.

 

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NIA, police track Sahanur leads

A STAFF REPORTER
Guwahati, Nov. 12: A mobile phone used by Burdwan blast accused Sahanur Alom has been recovered by the National Investigation Agency. Assam police are also working on some leads about his whereabouts.

An official source today said NIA officials had recovered the phone from Sahanur's house at Chatala village in lower Assam's Barpeta district yesterday and it could help them identify the person with whom he was in regular touch.

Sahanur had left the phone behind while fleeing his home a few days after the blast. Its SIM card is registered in the name of his mother-in-law, who passed away a couple of months ago.

The NIA today also questioned five residents of Sahanur's village. "Five close acquaintances of Sahanur were summoned to the NIA branch office here and quizzed about him," the source said.

The five persons are Sariful Islam, his wife Batasi Begum, Jahidul Islam, Saidul Ali and Rashid Ali Ahmed. They were allowed to leave after questioning.

Assam director-general of police Khagen Sarma told reporters in Dispur today that they had got some leads on Sahanur's whereabouts. He said police and other agencies, including the NIA, were working on the leads to track down the accused.

He said the state police were keeping a close watch on probable places, including some madarsas, where jihadi activities could be taking place. Some NGOs have also come under police scanner for their alleged jihadi links.

The DGP said several places in the city like Dispur capital complex, Kamakhya temple and offices of police and other security agencies could be the target of jihadi elements and added that all necessary measures had been taken to foil any such attempt.

Burdwan John Doe

Subhan Mandal was the John Doe of the Burdwan blast.

Investigators trying to trace the roots of the bleeding man who identified himself as "Subhan Mandal" before he breathed his last on October 2 have been hitting a dead-end so far. Now, it appears that Mandal was Abdul Karim, who worked in Calcutta and hailed from Kaferpur under Nanoor police station in Birbhum.

It also turns out that Karim — one of the two persons killed in the bomb-assembling home last month — was the cousin of the youth who bought chemicals from Calcutta's Camac Street to make the bombs.

The chemical procurer, Amjad Ali alias Kajol Sheikh, was arrested on Monday. On the basis of information provided by Ali, the investigators have reached a tentative conclusion that Subhan was Karim.

A couple have identified a photograph as that of their son Karim but the conclusion is not final yet because of a perceived age mismatch. Besides, the couple have not seen the body yet. The other person who had died in the seemingly accidental explosion was Shakil Ahmed. "Ali has told us that Subhan was his first cousin, whose original name is Abdul Karim alias Karim Sheikh. Karim used to live in Kaferpur under Nanoor police station in Birbhum district and was the son of Amjad's father's sister," said an NIA source.

According to him, the process of official identification — the body has been kept in the police morgue in Burdwan Medical College — was on.

Initially, the tail had grown cold after the investigators found an East Midnapore, the address provided by a blast survivor, to be incorrect.

"There was no one in name of Subhan Mandal in the given address in East Midnapore. But now it appears that his true identity has been established," said an investigator.

Karim's parents — Jamshed Sheikh, a vegetable shop owner, and Noorjahan Bibi — told The Telegraph that the last time they saw their son was two and a half months ago when he left to work at a shoe-company in Calcutta.

"My son left home to work in Calcutta with Kodor Sheikh (an absconding suspect), who used to live in the neighbouring village, Nimre. He returned two and a half months ago, saying he was now placed in a shoe company," said Jamshed.

Karim's mother Noorjahan said that the parents were completely in the dark about the alleged activities of their son. "When he left home, we knew that Amjad (the cousin now in NIA custody) was familiar with our son's workplace as Amjad was also working in Calcutta. So, we did not hesitate when he left to work with Kodor," she said.

An investigator said a picture was shown to Jamshed Sheikh and he had confirmed the identity.

Karim's relatives collected a residential certificate from Kirnahar-1 gram panchayat and went to Burdwan district for the identification of the body.

A police source said: "According to Karim's family, he did not attain the age of 18 and hence did not have a voter ID card. But the man who died in the blast appears to be in his 20s"¦. Things will be clearer once the formal identification is done tomorrow."

Bangladesh arrest

The brother of Sajid, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh's alleged pointman in Bengal, has been arrested in Bangladesh's Narayanganj port town, PTI quoted officials as saying in Dhaka today.

"We have arrested Mohammad Monayem from Farazikanda in Narayanganj early this morning," said a spokesperson for the Rapid Action Battalion.

Sajid, said to be the son of a Bangladesh armyman, was arrested in India last week.
NIA, police track Sahanur leads

 

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SIM trick in blast alert

- Dead suspect's cards used

The two SIM cards issued in the name of Shakil were inserted into cellphones by Sajid, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen point man in Bengal, to make a series of calls within 30 minutes of the blast to alert operatives across Murshidabad, the National Investigation Agency has learnt.

Sources in the central investigating agency said Sajid was informed about the "accidental" explosion by Zia-ul-Haque, a schoolteacher in Burdwan.

Both Sajid and Haque are now in NIA custody.

Within minutes of being told that Shakil had died in the Khagragarh flat, Sajid instructed Haque to inform members of the JMB in Burdwan while he took the responsibility of alerting the operatives in Murshidabad.

"Had it not been for Sajid's prompt decision to alert the other operatives, many more members of the terror module would have been arrested by now. He was cunning enough to use SIM cards that were registered in the name of a man who was dead by then," an NIA officer said.

According to sources, Haque has told the investigators that he learnt about the blast from Rezaul Karim, an absconding suspect from whose Badshahi Road house 39 IEDs were recovered.

Haque then informed Sajid in Birbhum.

The NIA has learnt about several top JMB operatives who received the timely alert from Sajid.

Among them were Laden, who was based in Mukimnagar in Lalgola; Nasimullah, an expert in making explosives; Sadik, a Bangladeshi national who imparted training at a madarsa in Mukimnagar, and a worker at Burqa Ghar, a shop owned by Shakil in Beldanga.

Haque, on the other hand, informed Kodor Sheikh and Sheikh Yusuf in Birbhum and Burdwan, respectively.

"Sajid knew it was a matter of hours before the police would start hunting for him. He called only those he thought would be prize catches," an investigator said.

What has surprised the investigators is Sajid's decision to instruct Haque to stay put in Burdwan while the others fled.

"Sajid had asked Haque to stay in Burdwan and keep an eye on the police. Haque had the perfect cover of being a schoolteacher. He kept Sajid posted for the next few days after the blast," an NIA officer said.

Haque had apparently told Rezaul Karim over the phone to take shelter in the schoolteacher's Malda home.

After Haque's arrest in Burdwan last week, the NIA recovered Rezaul Karim's laptop from the Malda home where he had taken shelter for a few days.

SIM trick in blast alert

 

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Villagers knew what cops didn't

The father of one of the persons who died in the Burdwan blast today identified him as Abdul Karim, who had told police before dying that he was Subhan Mondal.

Although Karim's father Jamshed Sheikh, a vegetable seller at Kaferpur village in Birbhum's Kirnahar, identified the body at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital morgue today, local residents said they knew all along that the youth who had claimed to be Subhan was Karim.

The claim by the Kaferpur residents has raised questions on the role of the district intelligence branch.

Birbhum superintendent of police Alok Rajoria said: "I can't call it an intelligence failure. The deceased's father did not claim his body earlier."

A neighbour of Jamshed who accompanied him to the hospital said on condition of anonymity that the residents knew that Subhan was Karim within 24 hours of the October 2 blast. The neighbour said Jamshed was informed about Karim's death by Amjad Ali, the youth's cousin who used to procure chemicals from a Shakespeare Sarani shop for the Burdwan terror module behind the blast.

"Some of Jamshed's family members shared the information with neighbours. That is how I came to know about it," the vegetable seller's neighbour said.

"When we were coming to the Burdwan hospital in a car, Jamshed regretted not having contacted the police. He said he had been informed by Amjad about the death," the neighbour added.

Police sources in Burdwan said Karim died four hours after the blast.

"The investigating officer of Burdwan police station, Akash Munshi, questioned him," a source said.

Munshi said today: "When I asked him (Karim) his name, he told us once that he was Swapan Mondal, son of Biplab Mondal. He claimed he was a resident of Uttarpara in East Midnapore. When I asked him his name again, he said he was Subhan Mondal, son of Dipak Mondal."

NIA sources said Karim's family kept the news of his death under wraps for fear of police harassment. "District intelligence officers, who are supposed to have a source network in the villages, did not know about it," an NIA officer said.

A Birbhum intelligence branch officer said the force lacked infrastructure and manpower to maintain vigil in all villages.

Jamshed today submitted Karim's ration card and residential certificate to the Burdwan administration. In the ration card, issued in 2006, Karim's name is mentioned as "Kerim Sheikh" and his age is given as eight.

Jamshed said: "My son was 17 years old. The body I saw today is that of my son."


Villagers knew what cops didn't

 

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One face, many names

KINSUK BASU
Calcutta, Nov. 12: Writhing in pain from injuries he suffered in the blast, 17-year-old Abdul Karim did just what his trainers had taught.

The "steely resolve" the fatally injured Karim displayed to mislead police by giving false names has prompted investigators to turn the scanner on the training given to Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operatives at the Shimulia madarsa.

NIA sources said the training was intense and involved learning to endure pain.

Those who were trained at the madarsa, where several of the blast suspects are believed to have been imparted extremist indoctrination, were hit with rods and sticks in their joints so that their endurance level increased, the sources said.

"When we asked him his name, Karim first said he was Swapan Mondal and then said he was Subhan Mondal. He also gave two different names of his father and falsely claimed he was a resident of East Midnapore. His voice didn't waver even once. He displayed steely resolve," said a senior officer of Burdwan police.

"There was no way one could make out he was lying. A doctor was present with us," the officer added.

The FIR mentions the names Swapan Mondal and Subhan Mondal just below those of Shakil Ahmed, who died in the October 2 blast, and Abdul Hakim, who suffered injuries.

According to senior NIA officers, the training at the Shimulia madarsa was imparted with guidance from Sajid, the alleged point man of the JMB in Bengal who was arrested last week, and Shakil.

"The trainees were told to maintain a number of aliases," an NIA officer said.

Investigations have revealed that Gulshan Bibi and Alima Bibi, the women arrested from the Khagragarh flat after the blast, also conducted training sessions.

"The trainees underwent endurance tests, including ways to develop the skill of bearing physical and mental pain through breathing exercises," the NIA officer said

"It was because of the training that Gulshan and Alima ensured that some important documents in the Khagragarh flat were destroyed within minutes of the blast before the police arrived. Hakim didn't want to be admitted to a hospital initially," he added.

The sources said youths from Assam, too, had taken part in the training. Sahanur Alom, a quack from Assam's Barpeta, brought the youths from the northeastern state.

The investigators said Alom's wife Sajina Begum had also undergone the training at the Shimulia madarsa.
One face, many names

It will be well nigh impossible to detect who is a teacher in the madarsa who is genuine and who is working under a fake identity.

Madarsa should be regularised, a proper curriculum should be made so that apart from religious education, there is education which equip them for the real world and all teachers and being taught are screened to be genuine Indian citizens.

If this is done, then the unfortunate shadow of suspicion that is clouding the country will vanish and people given confidence.