The Uttarakhand government has sealed 136 allegedly illegal madrasas across the state claiming that they were not registered with the education department or madrasa board, reported The Indian Express.

The newspaper cited government estimates to suggest that the state had approximately 450 registered madrasas, while an additional 500 were functioning without recognition from the two departments. However, these institutions are being operated under the Societies Registration Act.

In many parts of the Islamic world, a madrasa is an institution that imparts education – secular, or religious. In the Indian subcontinent, however, the word “madrasa” has evolved to refer solely to Islamic seminaries.

“Action against illegal madrasas, unauthorised shrines, and encroachments will continue,” The Indian Express quoted from a government communique. “Unregistered madrasas have been reported in towns bordering Uttar Pradesh, and such unauthorised institutions pose a serious security concern.”

The sealed institutions include 64 madrasas in Udham Singh Nagar, 44 in Dehradun, 26 in Haridwar and two in Pauri Garhwal, Times of India reported.

On Monday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also directed officials to probe the sources of funding for these institutions, The Indian Express reported.

“District administrations have been directed to verify madrasa operators, students enrolled, and examine the sources of their funding,” The Times of India quoted an unidentified official as saying.

“For a large-scale drive like this, the government needs to pass an order, but that has not happened,” Khurshid Ahmed, the state secretary for Jamiat ulema-i-Hind said in response to the sealing drive. “The sealing is taking place during Ramadan when the children are away at their homes. Several institutions had closed after the year-end exams. What needs to be seen is if the children will be able to assimilate with other schools and curriculum when they get transferred.”

Scroll’s reporting has shown that the state government appears to have selectively targeted Muslim places of worship on the pretext of removing encroachments from government land and public spaces.

On February 8 last year, the administration demolished a mosque and madrasa in Banbhoolpura, in the city of Haldwani in Nainital district, claiming that they were built illegally on government land – even as the matter was being adjudicated in the Uttarakhand High Court.

Six people were killed in a flare-up of violence that followed, and police cracked down on Muslim residents, detaining several men and barricading the areas in which they lived.

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