A slilghtly dated – but still frightening – newsreport. This reminds me of the essay that I penned sometime back on the “Arc of Islam” (see about halfway down the page):

http://hindu_dharma.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_hindu_dharma_archive.html��

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Friday, 24 March , 2006, 17:18�

New Delhi: Around 1900 Islamic seminaries have come up on both sides of the Indo-Nepal border in recent times and security agencies are keeping a close watch on 50 or 60 “sensitive” ones among them, Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Tilak Kak said Friday.

“There has been an exponential increase of madrassas on both sides of Indo-Nepal border in the recent past of which around 1100 are in India while the rest are in Nepal,” Kak told reporters here.

Asked about the reports of Nepal Maoists joining hands with Maoists in India, the SSB chief, whose men are guarding the borders with Nepal and Bhutan, said there was no concrete proof of Maoists from the two countries coming together.

“They may have ideological similarities but we don’t have any proof that they are joining hands or launching offensive together in anywhere,” he said on the eve of 43rd anniversary of SSB.

Kak said so far Maoists in Nepal have not come into any “conflict” with Indian security agencies, though the SSB had apprehended some of its cadres and seized arms and ammunition.

The SSB DG said no new camps of ULFA and NDFB had come up in the Bhutan kingdom ever since a joint operation was launched against them in 2004.

“We have been keeping a close watch there and our troops deployment along Indo-Bhutan border would be completed by 2008,” he said

Online at http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14169587