UP: How ‘Chhangur Baba’ engineered conversion nexus on Indo-Nepal border

Balrampur: What initially appeared to be a routine crackdown on illegal religious conversions in Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur district has revealed a far more alarming reality—one that intertwines faith manipulation, foreign funding, and strategic espionage.

The arrest of Jalaluddin, alias Chhangur Baba—formerly Navin Bava—has exposed a sophisticated model of dual-pipeline religious conversion operating along the sensitive India-Nepal border. Investigations by central agencies suggest that Chhangur was not merely an opportunistic preacher but a key operative in a well-orchestrated campaign backed by both radical Islamic groups and Christian missionary networks, with indications of support from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Intelligence sources confirm that Chhangur Baba’s model leveraged two parallel systems. On one end were Christian evangelical outfits working under the pretence of education and medical aid. On the other were radical Islamic networks providing ideological and financial reinforcement.

Together, they targeted vulnerable Hindu families across districts like Balrampur, Shravasti, Bahraich, Siddharthnagar, and Maharajganj. Under the guise of distributing ration kits and prayer booklets, Christian missionaries quietly collected detailed household data—caste, income, health, and even political leanings. This information was routed to a centralised database maintained by Chhangur’s wife, Nasreen, herself a convert from Hinduism. The strategy was chilling in its precision: families first received material support from Christian NGOs, followed by emotional persuasion and religious reprogramming, ultimately leading to Islamic conversion. Key to the narrative was the ‘success story’ of Chhangur and Nasreen, once impoverished Hindus, now living luxuriously—allegedly through divine blessing.