India, May 10 -- The usually quiet India-Nepal border, stretching across approximately 560 km in the seven Uttar Pradesh districts of Maharajganj, Siddharthnagar, Shravasti, Balrampur, Bahraich, Lakhimpur, and Pilibhit, is currently a scene of intense activity. Locked and student-less unrecognised madrasas are being assessed by revenue department teams, who are using tapes and measurement chains to demarcate the land belonging to madrasas, mosques, mazars and Eidgahs. Amid these steps, bulldozers are demolishing unauthorised constructions and security personnel are frisking suspicious people near the international boundary.

Carrying lists of madrasas, mosques, Eidgahs, and other structures built within a 10-km radius of the Nepal border,...