A plan to have hundreds of Muslim leaders near the Indian border in Nepal has alarmed Indian intelligence and other authorities, unnamed sources say.
The sources allege that an intelligence team has traced call records of those involved in the planning of the mega event, which is expected to gather over 5,000 Muslim "fundamentalists" and representatives from neighbouring nations.
The meeting is believed to be organised by the Joint Muslim Society of Nepal from 15 to 17 February in the Jajar area of Saptari district.
Jajar is just a few miles away from the Muslim-dominated region of the eastern state of Bihar which is also close to Bangladesh. It is expected that representatives from countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka will attend the event.
The possibility of Islamic leaders from the region coming together and using the platform for “strategising and executing activities to destabilise India” cannot be ruled out, the intelligence report said.
In the report submitted to the National Security Advisor's Office and the Prime Minister's Office, intelligence agencies questioned the timing and location of the gathering.
The Indian intelligence agency had been tracking the growing population of Muslims in Nepal for the past few years. Muslims constitute just 4.2 percent of Nepal's total population, with 96.7 percent living in the Tarai region bordering India.
The event will come at a time when Muslims across the country are accusing the Modi government of discrimination by excluding Muslims from the amended citizenship law that grants citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Sikhs, and Christians of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who faced persecution at home and arrived in India before 2015. The Indian government has vehemently denied the accusations, saying that the law was not targeting any specific religious group.
