The National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided a famous Madrasa in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda, pertaining to its investigation regarding a terror suspect who used to be a student there. During the course of the raid, they confiscated records of the student. The raid on Thursday lasted for about eight hours, and involved questioning the students, faculty besides carrying out a search of the premises.
As per images of the raid tweeted out by ANI, one can see a huge crowd of madrasa inhabitants crowding the courtyard of the property:
As per reports, the NIA carried out the raid on Jamia Arbia Madrasa in Banda’s Hathaura village with the help of the local police. Reports have claimed that the terror suspect in question is a student named Taufeef, who was arrested in Kashmir about three months back. The raid involved questioning about seven Kashmiri students and a warden. The NIA team went to the Darul Talim hostel and questioned students living in room 23 of the building.
The NIA authorities had arrived at the institution accompanied with a dossier which contained a few names and numbers linked to the madrasa, which were obtained from the terror suspect’s diary. The suspect who had come to the madrasa for studying, had written names of his co-students in his diary.
One local report has claimed that after the NIA team arrived at the Madrasa, the students present there created fortifications in fear of being arrested. Thus at one moment it looked as if a scuffle might break out between the authorities and the students. As per the Madrasa’s director, thousands of students from around the country study at this madrasa.
The madrasa was established in 1933 and currently houses about 2,500 students if reports are to be believed. The current director of the madrasa is Habib Ahmed who is the eldest son of Maulana Siddhiqi who founded the institute.
Media reports have claimed that the NIA team failed to find anything substantial during its raid. This though might not be the end of the matter as local reports have claimed that the NIA team has kept the madrasa on its watch for a few months now, which includes making clandestine investigations.