Lucknow, March 7 (IANS): A Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Yogi Adityanath government has found around 13,000 unauthorised madrasas in the state, sources said on Thursday.

Majority of the madrasas are located along the UP-Nepal border, including districts like Maharajganj, Shravasti, and Bahraich.

The SIT report said that it had sought financial records from these madrasas, but most have failed to provide a clear account of their income and expenditure, fuelling suspicions of diversion of funds for ‘illicit’ activities.

According to police sources, most of the madrasas claimed to have been built with donations, they have been unable to disclose the names of contributors.

The investigation, covering a total of 23,000 madrasas, has identified 5,000 with provisional recognition, and some have fallen short of meeting accreditation standards over the past 25 years.

Recently, the police agencies had confirmed that approximately 80 madrasas in border regions, received funding totalling around Rs 100 crore from foreign sources.

Taking a serious view of this, the state government had set up the SIT to conduct a thorough investigation into the operations of all madrasas in the state. This directive came amidst growing concerns over the potential misuse of funds, raising questions about the authenticity of the sources supporting these religious institutions.