PUNE, 14 June 2006 — Following the death of Irfan Moinuddin Attar, the alleged Kolhapur-based Hizbul Mujahedeen terrorist, killed in an encounter in Kashmir recently, the police are maintaining a close vigil on the activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) in Sangli, Miraj, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Pune, according to K.K. Pathak, the special inspector general of police, Kolhapur range.
Police investigations had revealed that Irfan was engaged in terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir under the name of Janbaaz Hakhali and that Irfan was admitted to madrasas of Shirol and Udgoon and that he later stayed in Gujarat and Rajasthan. During a raid on the house of the alleged slain terrorist in Kolhapur, the police confiscated Arabic and Urdu literature.
Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil speaking at a press conference in the city refuted the allegations that the madrasas were a breeding ground for terrorists.
“Irfan’s incident did not mean that the education provided in madrasas was anti-national,” Patil said.
The Intelligence Bureau (IB) of the federal government however does not support or concur with the clean chit given to the madrasas by Patil and is of the opinion that the madrasas are being misused by the terrorists.
Unhappy with the defense of the madarsas by the Maharashtra government, the officials of the IB have alleged that the Congress lead Democratic Front (DF) government is not taking any risk to upset its minority vote bank.
“The Maharashtra government has sealed its ears to the advice of the IB to monitor the activities of the madarsas, which are being misused by the Muslim terrorists as safe houses” said an IB official.
According to the IB inputs sent to the state home department in Bombay, it suggested that the madarsas in the districts of Jalgaon, Nashik, Thane, Solapur, Kolhapur, Gadchiroli, Nanded, Aurangabad, Malegaon and Pune should be put under strict surveillance and physical inspection should be carried out of the madarsas. But the Maharashtra government has failed to follow the advice.
The report providing statistics of the madarsas outlined that there are more than 3,000 madarsas in the state, and majority of the madarsas are illegal and unregistered. The largest numbers of 500 madarsas are in Bombay and half of them are illegal. There are more than 200,000 students in the madarsas in the state, who receive training in religion, Arabic and Persian languages from more than 5000 teachers.
The IB report states that the education imparted in some of the madarsas are of Talabani culture and breeding ground for wrongly influencing students.
The Maharashtra government is hesitant to act on the IB report, fearing that any action now would spark angry reactions from the Muslim community and more does not want to antagonize the Muslims in view of the forthcoming elections to the local self-government bodies, scheduled to be held in December.
