Rising ISI-backed radicalization in Nepal
By Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
Following the 2024 Islamist coup in Bangladesh – engineered and executed by the US Deep State in collaboration with Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George and Alexander Soros, and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) – a dark chapter of extremism has been unfolding across South Asia.
Islamist and jihadist forces, under the direct patronage of Islamofascist Muhammad Yunus, have intensified their campaign of terror, targeting religious and ethnic minorities such as Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, and indigenous communities in Bangladesh.
While the persecution within Bangladesh continues unabated, the second and more dangerous phase of this extremist blueprint has now commenced: the exportation of radical Islamism to neighbouring non-Muslim nations. The first target in this transnational jihadist expansion is Nepal, a peaceful Hindu-majority country with no history of religious militancy.
Since 2003, several Islamist militant outfits – including Al Qaeda – have been discreetly using Nepalese territory to set up secret training camps in remote and rugged regions of the Himalayas. These groups have also used Nepal as a sanctuary to evade international intelligence scrutiny . Most probably only RAW is keeping an eye in Nepal. However, recent developments suggest a disturbing evolution in their strategy.
With funding from Afro-Arab sources, Pakistan’s ISI has launched a more aggressive and structured campaign to increase the Muslim population in Nepal through methods such as deceptive religious conversion, “love jihad”, and socio-economic manipulation. This drive is being executed under the guise of religious outreach through organizations like Tablighi Jamaat and shadowy NGOs.
A local vernacular newspaper, Purbokone, recently published a report revealing that an organization called Alhaj Shamsul Haque Foundation, commonly known as the Ash Foundation, has laid the foundation stone of its first mosque in Nepal. The location is in the remote Inarawa area of Sunsari district, near Biratnagar. The mosque, named Razzak Mosque, is described as a religious hub for the local Muslim population – which comprises only 5 percent of Nepal’s total population.
The report detailed that Engineer Muhammad Nasir Uddin, chairman of the Ash Foundation, led the mosque’s groundbreaking ceremony on July 18, 2025, in the presence of local dignitaries, including the area’s Member of Parliament, ward chairman, and other respected figures. He declared that construction materials had already begun arriving and that full-scale construction would begin on July 19.
More concerning were his public remarks during the ceremony, where he clearly stated that the mosque would function not only as a religious center for Muslims but also as a center for Islamic dawah (proselytization) among the remaining 95 percent of Nepal’s non-Muslim population – particularly Hindus. In effect, this project is a stepping stone toward the long-term goal of religious conversion and demographic engineering.
In an official statement, the Ash Foundation claimed:
“Razzak Mosque is expected to become a spiritual and communal center for Muslims in Sunsari, as well as an example of inter-community cooperation and development in Nepal. The foundation is committed to supporting religious and educational infrastructure for underserved communities across South Asia”.
According to its Facebook page, the Ash Foundation was founded in 2018 and formally registered as an NGO in Bangladesh on September 20, 2022, with registration number 3201. Previously, it had operated as a joint stock company (RJSC Number 620/2018). On July 18, 2025, the foundation posted a public call for donations to fund mosque construction and to expand similar projects across Nepal and other neighboring countries.
Behind the smokescreen of charity and religious outreach lies a deeper, more insidious plot. Intelligence sources indicate that Pakistan’s ISI is covertly backing this initiative, in coordination with a network of Islamist nations including Turkey and select Gulf countries.
Once completed, the Razzak Mosque could serve not only as a religious structure but as a logistics and recruitment center for jihadist networks such as Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hamas, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and others.
This strategy mirrors similar methods used in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Balkans, where mosques and so-called “Islamic cultural centers” have operated as fronts for intelligence gathering, radical indoctrination, and militant recruitment. The ultimate goal is to undermine non-Muslim states by creating ideological and demographic footholds, which are later used to foster unrest and armed conflict.
For Nepal – a country with no history of sectarian strife – this infiltration represents a dangerous turning point. By exploiting its open borders and peaceful society, extremist elements are now embedding themselves within the social fabric, potentially sowing seeds for future discord and terror.
What is unfolding in Nepal must serve as a red alert to all regional stakeholders. Allowing terrorist-linked NGOs and ISI-backed religious centers to gain ground under the cloak of humanitarianism and interfaith dialogue is a catastrophic security risk.
If left unchecked, Nepal could be transformed into a staging ground for pan-Islamist insurgency, threatening not only its own sovereignty but also the stability of India, Bhutan, and the wider South Asian region.
Immediate diplomatic and intelligence coordination among SCO nations is essential to thwart this calculated jihadist expansion before it engulfs yet another peaceful nation in flames.
