After Friday’s raid on a local madrasa and the arrest of its manager, the Shia Waqf Board said that all madrasas being run on Waqf properties will be closed down. The SWB will also take action against those madrasa which are not recognised by UP Madrasa Education Board and were being run on properties of Shia Waqf Board.

Chairman of SWB, Waseem Rizvi said in lucknow on Saturday that the Board has issued direction to mutwallis (caretaker) of over 10,000 Waqf properties registered with it, to furnish information whether they were running the madrasa on the property.  He said that the mutwallis have also been asked to keep a watch on recognised madrasas being run on Waqf property registered with SWB.

Rizvi said that he would soon write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for introducing modern common education syllabus in all these madrasas so as to enable students passing out from the religious educational institutions to get decent jobs.

The SWB chairman said that the employability of students passing out from madrasa was very poor at present and they do not get good jobs. “At the most, they get jobs of Urdu translators or typists,” he said.

Meanwhile, Muslim and other religious leaders have condemned the exploitation of girl students by a maulvi running Khadijtul Kubra lilbanat Madrasa at Sadatganj in lucknow which was raided by the police on Friday night. The police also rescued 51 girls and arrested the Maulvi.

Condemning the incident, Mahant Divya Giri of Mankameshwar temple said, “Stringent action should be taken against religious persons involved in exploitation of girls students.’’

Shahar Kazi Maulana Abul Irfan Miyaan Farangi Mahli said that a high-level probe be instituted against the manager of the madrasa to bring him to justice.

Prominent Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad said, “I am not aware of the facts so it will be premature to comment on the incident. If illegal activity has been found in the madrasa then action must be taken against those responsible. Action should be taken after prroper investigation.”

Maulana Saif Abbas of Shia Moon committee said that such kind of incident has occurred for the first time in lucknow and if there was truth in the charges against the manager of the madrasa then it was very unfortunate. 

“If the manager of the madarsa is found responsible for conducting illegal activity, then he must be held accountable before the law,” he said.