Foreign funding, NGOs, terror outfits and Educational institutions: The UP conversion racket stems from a well-organised Islamic conversion syndicate

After busting the massive Islamic conversion racket spearheaded by Mohammad Umar Gautam and Mufti Qazi Jahangir Qasmi, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has received a 7-days custody remand of the two and will be charging them under the National Security Act (NSA). However, as the different layers of the case start to unravel, it appears that the conversion racket was only a minuscule part of the intricate operation that involved foreign funding through Indian NGOs, diversion of funds to radical organisations, terror outfits and using the money to create

Islamic Dawah Centre – the nerve centre

The duo ran an organisation named Islamic Dawah Centre (IDC), along with their other associates. According to several media reports, it is being suspected that Umar’s conversion organisation received foreign donations from NGOs based in the US, Qatar, Kuwait etc.

The funds for IDC were supposedly routed through several India-based FCRA registered NGOs including Fatima Charitable Foundation (Delhi), Al Hasan Education and Welfare Foundation (Lucknow), Mewat Trust for Educational Welfare (Faridabad), Markjul Mareef (Mumbai) and Human Solidarity Foundation.

Irfan Sheikh, who works as a translator in the Ministry of Women and Child Development, is also involved in this conversion racket. He was helping IDC identify needy deaf and deaf youth and women who could be funded and tried for conversion.

IDC has links with the Islamic Online University founded by Qatar-based Salafi preacher Dr Bilal Phillips, who is an associate of Zakir Naik. Umar Gautam has close links with the Global Peace Centre, Delhi, run by Maulana Kalim Siddiqui, who is involved in conversion activities especially in the Mewat region.

Human bombs and plans to kill Yati Narsinghanand

UP ATS Additional Director General (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar, has already remarked on the record that the accused were funded by international organisations, including Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). It has already been unearthed that Umar Gautam and Qasmi wanted to first convert the hearing and speech impaired children into Islam and then use them as human bombs.

The names of Qasmi and Gautam had also cropped up during the interrogation of Kashif and Vipul, who were arrested in connection with the conspiracy to kill the head priest (Mahant) of Dasna Devi temple, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati.

Read More: Kamlesh Tiwari episode all over again: Lakhs of Muslims call for beheading of Yati Narsinghanand

According to intelligence agencies sources, more than 100 bank accounts are on the radar. Of these, about three dozen accounts have already been searched. Along with this, the funding is also being scrutinized which most likely could have gone some terrorist organizations way.

Pyramid scheme conversion racket

As per a Jagran report, what made Umar’s conversion such big in scale was the pyramid style multi-level chain that he created of agents. Reportedly, the perpetrators of the conversion racket turned the ‘converts’ into ‘agents’ for some money. These agents were then assigned to attract people to the alleged ‘motivation’ camp for which they were paid Rs 5000. Upon conversion, the agents were paid anywhere between Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000.

More than 20 families have given statements to UP ATS saying their children were converted by the two accused. Darsh Saxena’s mother in an interview with ANI revealed that her son has been missing since 2018 and suspects he too has been converted.

“His name on truecaller app comes as Rehaan. Back then, we filed missing report to avoid religious disharmony. We want to know about his well being,” she was quoted as saying.

Similarly, a Zee News report shows the plight of Priyanka Sen’s mother whose daughter has now become Fatima. Reportedly, Priyanka, who is from the Aliganj area of Lucknow, after the death of her father in 2013 started working. At the office, she met few Muslim co-workers and became good friends.

However, according to Priyanka’s mother, there was a sudden change in her behaviour after getting in touch with the Muslim workers and out of the blue, she went to Mumbai and did not return for the next 7 years, only corresponding through the phone. Priyanka never told her mother that she had converted. When she did return and that too with two kids and a new identity, she only wanted to have her share of the property.

The genesis – Shyam alias Umar

Reported previously by TFI, Mohammad Umar Gautam was earlier known as Shyam Prasad Singh Gautam before he severed his ties with Hindu roots and embraced Islam. According to Arab News, Shyam alias Mohammad Umar was born in 1964 in a regal Rajput family from Fatehpur.

Shyam’s slow walk towards Islam started in 1984 when he met a man named Nasir Khan in his Pratapgarh neighbourhood. Khan helped Shyam through an injury by looking after him and later brainwashed Shyam into embracing Islam in 1986.

And thus started an incessant urge of a fresh convert in Shyam to show his Muslimness to his brothers. Now rechristened as Mohammad Umar Gautam, he converted his wife and later his mother into Islam and started using every dirty trick in the book to lure, financially weak and disabled people into his cult of conversion.

Read More: Shyam was helped by a Muslim guy, became Umar and converted over a 1000 Hindus

After being arrested, Umar Gautam has been quoted as saying, “I converted at least 1,000 non-Muslims to Islam, marrying them all to Muslims.” He also confessed to having converted over 1,500 children at school for the deaf and mute in Noida on the pretext of employment and money.

A case was registered by ATS under Sections 419, 420, 295A, 505 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code. According to the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance 2020, brought in by the Yogi government last year, forced conversions are non-bailable offences with up to 10 years of jail time if undertaken unlawfully.

Read More: BUSTED: Massive Islamic conversion racket that especially targeted the poor

New developments are emerging every day as the investigative agencies go deep into the racket. It is indeed implausible that Mohammad Umar Gautam, along with his accomplice managed to run a racket alone for so long, without having the backing of big political and foreign powers.