M A I N   N E W S

Madarsas ring alarm bells
Madarsas mushroom along border
By Amarjit Thind
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH March 7 — The mushrooming of a large number of madarsas in the areas along the international border (IB) in Rajasthan has set alarm bells ringing in intelligence circles, while the State Government has adopted an ostrich-like approach.

The most-affected areas fall in the Bikaner Sector and as per reports of the Border Intelligence (BI) units, the madarsas are being run by Bengali maulvis, a majority of whom have reportedly come from a particular village in West Bengal.

This particular aspect has intrigued the intelligence agencies as the maulvis are suspected to have reportedly been trained for carrying out indoctrination by sleuths of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) based in Bangladesh.

The aim of the ISI is to have demographical changes in an area where they could bank upon sympathisers behind enemy lines in time of war who would give valuable information about troop movement and carry out sabotage of vital installations.

Efforts are also afoot to activate dormant ISI cells in this particular area besides other areas in the north-west. Their mission is to carry out reconnaissance of vital installations, flooding the country with fake currency and increasing the inflow of narcotics. Emphasis is also being laid on bringing about demographical changes in areas of strategic importance.

These are the observations and facts revealed by officers of the BI, villagers and others when this correspondent visited the Bikaner-Suratgarh Sector during Exercise Vijay Chakra conducted last month.

More than 40 madarsas are presently functional in places like Lunkaransar, Manoria, Mahajan, Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh. While Mahajan is the traditional training ground of the Army and Sriganganagar has a cantonment, the other places also have large scale presence of the Army.

These areas witness regular Army exercises throughout the year, besides being the testing ground for various armaments and conducting of allied field tests. As such these areas witness Army movement on a large-scale.

Sources said these areas have also witnessed a perceptible demographic changes in the past decade. Hanumangarh alone has 17 madarsas while the reported population of Muslims is hardly more than 4, 000. Similarly, Mahajan has seven and Sriganganagar has two madarsas — more than what the populace needs.

The incidence of infiltration has also witnessed an upswing in these areas. Many of the locals have relatives across the border in places like Fort Abbas, Bahawalpur and Chistia Mandi, and they frequently cross over through the porous border.

According to sources, the preferred routes are through Khejriwal, Bhaija, Pugal and other places in the area. Many people are reportedly carriers and bring arms, fake currency and narcotics on their arrival this side. They also take back details about troop movement and other allied information.

Questions have also been raised about the movement of foreigners who work for non-government organisations (NGOs) in such areas. There is no check on their movement and it is a matter of concern that they take photographs and prepare video films of their activities in the area which could reportedly be used for studying the topography of the area — valuable to the enemy during war.

Another matter of concern has been the rise in the number of STD booths, facsimile machines and photocopiers in this area. While there were hardly a few till a couple of years ago, now even the remotest village has one.

This has baffled the officials as there are hardly big educational institutions, large business houses or any other activity to support the mushrooming of such facilities. The income levels of the people in this area also do not merit such growth.

Sources said reports submitted to the government has not elicited any response and it would be too late to do anything when the sinister designs of the ISI begin to bear fruit.