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Night raids on madrasas anger clergy


Hyderabad, Aug. 30: Madrasas have accused the Congress government of being anti-Muslim after police raided a well-known Islamic seminary in the city late on Wednesday night. Two more madrasas including a girls’ seminary were raided on Thursday afternoon. Police, however, described the raids as verification exercises undertaken as part of the investigation into the twin blasts. A team of cops swooped down on the 25-year-old Darul Uloom Hyderabad, managed by eminent Islamic scholar Moulana Hameeduddin Aquil Hussami, in the dead of night and conducted a virtual identification parade of students and teachers.

Most of the students in the madrasa are below 14 years and several are orphans. The midnight swoop angered the Muslim clergy who said the police was “terrorising Muslims and branding them as terrorists”. Cops returned to the madrasa on Thursday morning for verification of records. Moulana Aquil had campaigned for the Congress during the last Assembly elections and had shared a dais with senior Congress leaders including Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.

“Madrasa is an educational institution,” said Moulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, general secretary of the Deeni Madaris Board. “It is open to all. Raiding a madrasa in the dead of night will send wrong signals and create communal frenzy.” The Madaris Board, umbrella body of madrasas in the State, held an emergency meeting on Thursday evening to denounce the police action as highhanded.

It said that several young students were traumatised by the presence of the police late in the night.

The board, comprising senior Islamic clergy, wondered what had forced the police to raid madrasas during night when they could visit them without trouble in the morning.

Representatives of over three dozen top madrasas participated in the meeting and decided to call on Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy after Friday prayers to lodge their protest . They also warned of severe Muslim backlash if the Congress government did not desist from such actions.

“Madrasas create responsible and God-fearing citizens,” said Moulana Hameeduddin Aquil, who chaired the meeting. “No terrorist has ever been rounded up from a madrasa in India. Even senior Hindu Fundamentalist BJP leaders like L.K. Advani gave them a clean sheet. If we come across any anti-national element, we will be the first ones to hand them over to the police.” Meanwhile, police on Thursday afternoon raided Darul Uloom Anwarul Huda at Kishanbagh and Jamia Ayesha Siddiqa Lil Banat, a girl’s religious school at Misriganj, angering the Islamic clergy further.

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Hyderabad cops visit madrasas, start a row: IBNLive.com > Videos



LEARNING DIFFERENT: Police have visited at least 10 madrasas in Hyderabad since August 25.

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Hyderabad cops visit madrasas, start a row

ibnlive.com

Published on Friday , August 31, 2007 at 15:30

New Delhi/ Hyderabad: The Hyderabad police have ruffled feathers by visiting madrasas while investigating the August 25 twin bomb blasts in the city.

Sources tell CNN-INDIA the police are searching for a man called named Mujibur Rahman but authorities refused to comment if he is a suspect in their investigation.

The police have asked madrasas to supply information on their students and teachers and their source of funding. Police teams, since August 25, have visited at least 10 madrasas including the Jamia Islamia Darul Uloom in Shivrampalli and Jami Anwar Ul Huda in Kishanbagh.

The police investigation has upset the Deeni Madrasa Board, the top organ of all madrasas in Andhra Pradesh. The board has objected to the police visits, and is meeting Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhar Reddy in the evening to register its protest.

“Madrasa is an educational institution; it is open to all. Raiding a madrasa in the dead of night will send wrong signals and create communal frenzy,” Moulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, general secretary of the Deeni Madarsa Board, told the Deccan Chronicle newspaper.

A report in Deccan Chronicle said the police visited the Darul Uloom madrasa on Wednesday night and Thursday morning and questioned students and teachers.

The police on Thursday visited Darul Uloom Anwarul Huda at Kishanbagh and Jamia Ayesha Siddiqa Lil Banat, a women’s religious school in Misriganj.

“Madrasas create responsible and god-fearing citizens. No terrorist has ever been rounded up from a madrasa in India,” said Moulana Hameeduddin Aquil, who manages the Darul Uloom Hyderabad, at a meeting of madrasas on Thursday.

‘ISI agent’ arrested

In a related development, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has arrested a suspected ISI agent from his house in Malakpet on Thursday night.

Shadab allegedly knows Shahed alias Bilal, the Harkat ul Jihadi Islami who is a top suspect in the August 25 blasts and the Mecca Masjid blasts on May 18.