Indian govt targeting Muslim identity, institutions in UP’s border districts
Islamabad: The Indian government has launched yet another aggressive campaign targeting Muslim identity and institutions this time in the border districts of Uttar Pradesh adjoining Nepal.
According to Kashmir Media Service, under the guise of combating “anti-India elements” and cracking down on “foreign funding channelled from Nepal,” the Indian Home Ministry has ordered the immediate demolition of all mosques and madrasas allegedly constructed “illegally”.
This directive has nothing to do with verified intelligence or any proven threat. Instead, it follows a familiar BJP-RSS pattern: criminalize Muslim spaces first, then justify their erasure through security-driven propaganda. The order amounts to collective punishment, where entire Muslim communities are accused without evidence and pushed towards cultural and religious obliteration.
According to the demolition list, the scale of the operation is staggering. A total of 183 madaris, 27 masajid, 11 Eidgahs, and nine cemeteries across seven districts have been marked for destruction. These include 95 madrasas and two mosques in Saswati; 21 madrasas, 10 mosques, and seven Eidgahs in Mahraj Ganj; 31 madrasas and nine cemeteries in Balram; 19 madrasas and one mosque in Sadharth Nagar; 13 madrasas, nine mosques, and three Eidgahs in Behraich; three madrasas and three mosques in Lekhem Pur; and one madrasa, two mosques, and one Eidgah in Pelibhet.
The inclusion of cemeteries—the final resting places of Muslim families shows how deep the campaign runs. This is not administrative regulation; it is a state-engineered dismantling of Muslim presence, aimed at uprooting religious, educational, and cultural foundations along the border.
By weaponizing bulldozers and invoking security rhetoric, India once again reinforces a troubling reality that under the current political order, no mosque, madrasa, Eidgah, or even graveyard is safe from the expanding Hindutva project of erasure.
