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NEIGHBOURS: NEPAL
Corridor of Doubt

The porous Indo-Nepal border is the new hotbed of criminal and ISI-related activities. India needs to tackle the problem before it burgeons out of control.

By Farzand Ahmed

Suspicion hangs heavy along the 391-km stretch of the Indo-Nepal border. Small wonder. A trip through the Buddhist Circuit and Poorvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh) is like a voyage through the Taliban heartland. Mosques and madarsas dot both sides of the border and burqa-clad women are a permanent fixture on the landscape.

"It is not a new phenomenon. This is how we've been living for generations," says Ekram Ali, 28, at a teashop in the crowded Bahraich market. Ali's sentiments echo across the border. At Dhamoji in Nepalganj, Serajul Hassan Ansari, a 45-year-old chaw-chaw-seller, says the Nepalese Muslims have woken to the importance of education, which is why they have started sending their children to madarsas. Ansari runs the 45-year-old Dhamoji masjid-cum-madarsa, a suspected ISI base. It is currently being renovated and expanded -- allegedly with funds received from Pakistan.

In a dilapidated house a short distance away resides Maulana Abdul Jabbar Manzari. He runs a two-room madarsa in the town. "It is no crime to accept donations for orphans, religious work or for renovating a madarsa or a mosque. Even countries like Japan and Germany have been giving us donations," he says. Manzari, who is also a member of the district committee of the Nepal Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), laughs at the accusations. "The Indian agencies recently altered my name in a bid to associate me with several institutions in Nepalganj. They could have verified it before circulating the same," he says.

Construction of mosques and madarsas may not be a crime elsewhere. But along this border it arouses suspicion. Not without reason.

Just across Barhni (Sidhartha-nagar) in Poorvanchal stands the Seraju-ul-Uloom Salfia mosque, with a madarsa in Krishnanagar, Nepal. The no man's land has all but disappeared, facilitating free flow of people. On May 30, the Indo-Nepal Border Police (INBP) caught Naushad Ali, 25, with charas and 9-MM pistols. Naushad was using the mosque-madarsa as his base. A lieutenant of slain don Mirza Dilshad Beg, reported to be Dawood Ibrahim's frontman in Nepal, Naushad had allegedly helped execute music mogul Gulshan Kumar in Mumbai.

However, Abdul Habib, a teacher at the madarsa, denies that the institution is being used for anti-India activities. It is a prestigious institution offering an eight-year course in Islamic studies and an "Ilmiat" degree (equivalent to gra-duation), he says. According to the local people, though the mosque was built in 1914, of late it has gained in importance as most of the smaller madarsas in the region receive aid from Islamic countries only on its recommendation.

Gorakhpur Zonal Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Udayan Parmar admits that a porous border at Poorvanchal has converted the region into a haven for criminals and smugglers (dealing in narcotics, timber, gold and fake currency). The region has also begun supplying mercenaries. "It's too late for India; it should have woken up to such activities much earlier," says Ajai Pratap Shah, the Rashtriya Prajatantrik Party MP from Nepal's Krishnanagar region. "It is a failure on part of the Indian Embassy and agencies to have allowed the growth of such activities," he adds.

In what was perhaps a wake-up gesture, an Indian delegation led by Brajesh Mishra, national security advisor and principal secretary to the prime minister, visited Kathmandu recently. Mishra was assured by Nepalese Prime Minister G.P. Koirala and Home Minister

G.R. Joshi that efforts would be made to prevent the ISI from using Nepal as a base for anti-India activities.

That Uttar Pradesh -- and Poorvanchal in particular -- serves as an ideal setting for such activities is revealed by the following data compiled by the Gorakhpur Police:

• As much as 821-km stretch of the 1,664-km Indo-Nepal border lies in Uttar Pradesh. Of this, around 391 km is spread across Poorvanchal's five sensitive districts: Maharajganj, Sidharthanagar, Balrampur, Shravasti and Bahraich.

• The area has 252 villages, of which 66 are Muslim dominated. The Muslim population in the five districts varies from 25 to 40 per cent (with an exception of 14 per cent in Maharajganj). A comparable Muslim population is spread across the border.

• There are 158 mosques and 146 madarsas in these districts; 102 and 60 across the border.

• The region across the border has a network of 10 pucca roads and 78 all-weather roads. As against only four authorised routes (with customs and police checkpoints) there were at least 15 unauthorised routes.

• In 1999 the police registered 19 cases of fake currency smuggling.

The Indian police accuse their Nepalese counterparts of hampering their efforts to curb the ISI. "So the police have stopped going to Nepal in pursuit of criminals," says Parmar.

However, a senior police official of Nepal's Bhairawa district, refutes the allegation saying, "India suspects us of protecting the ISI. We on the other hand suspect India of encouraging Maoist guerrillas here. But this mutual suspicion will not help us find a solution." Despite regular border meetings, India never seeks help from the Nepal Police or submits a list of wanted criminals, alleges the official. Nepal on the other hand has arrested and deported many high-profile accused, he adds.

On their part, the Uttar Pradesh Police have created the INBP with 400 personnel to patrol the border and have set up 22 checkpoints. In addition, there are 25 police stations. However, the organisation is wracked by complaints of frequent transfers and minimal powers, leading to frequent disputes between the INBP and the district police or the customs.

The undeterred ISI, meanwhile, continues to spread its tentacles in the region. A 21-page Intelligence Bureau report alleges a seven-point game plan -- Operation Sanatan -- to be unleashed on both sides of the border in Poorvanchal region. The spread of activities includes creating a wedge between Hindus and Muslims, countering growth of Hindu organisations and setting up a jehad force.

Even as the follow-up action on Nepal's promise is awaited, Operation Sanatan seemed to have taken off in the region last week. Two contradictory surveys were conducted on the number and usage of Islamic institutions along the border. The first was conducted by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, along 76 villages in 10 districts. It said that 249 mosques and 179 madarsas had come up in the region in the past decade. This was followed by a retaliatory survey by the All India Milli Council, a non-political fundamentalist organisation, whose objective was to deny that the institutions were being funded by the ISI or were being used for anti-India activities.

Whether or not the institutions are ISI bases is yet to be proved. What is clear for now is that the Indo-Nepal border has become the latest trouble-spot for India.

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