KATHMANDU, June 20: The Indian government has made an accusation that the Madrasas (Islamic schools) in Nepal are carrying out anti-India terrorist activities. The allegation was made by the Indian side at a meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Nepal-India Joint Secretary level border management.
In the 12th meeting of Nepal-India border management, the Nepali side had objected to the allegation that anti-India terrorist activities were being carried out from Nepal's Madrasas in the name of religious activities. The meeting was held in New Delhi on Wednesday and Thursday.
In the meeting held after six years, the Indian side requested the Nepali authorities to stop the terrorist activities taking place inside the madrasas of Nepal. The Indian side stated that the number of madrasas in Nepal had increased to 645 between 2018 and 2021 and that all of them had the investment of Pakistani intelligence agencies. Although the Nepali side raised various issues, the Indian side did not want to talk and the meeting was concluded.
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In particular, the Indian side had objected to the infiltration of Pakistani and Afghan terrorists into Nepal's madrasas when Nepal raised raised the issues of resolving common problems including criminals hiding in another country, illegal arms smuggling, terrorist activities, drugs, counterfeit note trade, gold smuggling, customs fraud etc. Stating that terrorists have no country or religion, the Nepali side replied that the government was committed to stopping such activities.
Similarly, during the meeting, the Government of India seemed positive about stopping the mistreatment of Nepali citizens by Indian security personnel in the border areas. "Both sides have agreed not to do anything that could hurt the two countries and to stop any unwanted activity in the border area," said Phanindra Mani Pokharel, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Head of the Peace and Security Division, who led the Nepali side in the meeting.
Likewise, an official from Nepal’s side said, “The Indian side does not pay attention to what we have said. They always speak about their own issues. We talked about floods, gold smuggling, and integrated security for border security. However, the Indian side accused us of having terrorist activities in our Islamic schools.”
There have been complaints about the Indian side neglecting the issues related to national security raised by Nepal. According to a source, the Indian side didn’t want to discuss the issues raised by Nepal such as Nepali land being submerged due to Indian embankments in the border area, Nepal being affected by construction of temporary houses by the Indian side in tens of thousands of areas.
The Nepali team was led by Phanindra Mani Pokhrel, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Chief of the Peace and Security Division. The Indian team was led by Ashish Kumar, Chief Joint Secretary, Department of Border Management, Ministry of Home Affairs India.
