Rights group questions police survey targeting Muslim institutions in India

NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — A civil rights group in eastern India has urged authorities to disclose the legal basis for an alleged police survey collecting sensitive information from mosques, Islamic schools and other Muslim religious institutions. 

The West Bengal chapter of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) warned that the exercise could amount to religious profiling and called for greater transparency over the data collection.

The group said that forms were being distributed among committees managing mosques, madrasas, Eid prayer grounds and Sufi shrines across the state of West Bengal, seeking extensive information about their operations, finances and religious affiliations.

The forms ask institutions to provide details about land ownership, sources of funding, foreign visitors or students and previous criminal cases involving them, including police complaints and charge sheets. They also seek certain political and organizational information, according to APCR.

But the rights group said copies of the forms available to it contain no clear reference to a government notification, official memo, issuing authority or specific law authorizing police to collect such information.

That absence has fueled questions over why police are gathering sensitive data specifically from institutions associated with the state’s Muslim community and what authorities intend to do with the information.

“If these forms have been issued under an official government or police order, why has that order not been made available to the concerned institutions and the public?” APCR asked.

The organization expressed particular concern about questions requiring mosques and other institutions to identify their religious or sectarian affiliation, saying authorities should explain why such information is necessary and how it relates to the stated purpose of the exercise.

APCR also said the police exercise should not be conflated with a separate statewide survey of madrasas being conducted by West Bengal’s Department of Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education. The existence of an officially approved survey of Islamic schools, it argued, does not automatically authorize police to conduct a separate exercise or collect additional sensitive information.

The group has now asked the BJP-led West Bengal government and police to disclose who authorized the forms, the law under which the information is being collected and the precise purpose of the exercise. It is also seeking details about who will have access to the resulting database and how the information will be stored and used.

APCR said it does not oppose legitimate administrative efforts to maintain records of religious institutions but warned that any such exercise must be transparent, legally authorized and applied without discrimination.

“If this is an official government survey, let the government order be made public,” the group said. “If it is a police initiative, the authorities must clearly state under which law and for what purpose such sensitive information is being collected from religious institutions.”