As many as 17 persons, including six madrasa teachers, were held in Assam on Thursday for links with terror groups. According to the police, it has arrested a madrasa teacher and detained five others from another madrasa in Morigaon district. Similarly, seven persons from Barpeta, one from Guwahati, and another three persons were detained from the state’s capital Dispur on Thursday.

All of them are suspected to have links with terror outfits like al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT).

In the Saharai village of the Moirabari area of Morigaon, police nabbed Mufti Mustafa Ahmed who runs Jamiat-ul-Huda Madrassa. Police received a specific complaint about some suspicious activities going on within the madrasa premise, which is located adjacent to the house of Mustafa.

Police have seized a few mobile phones, bank passbooks, and other incriminating materials from his possession. Mustafa is suspected to be operating terror modules from his madrasa.

Morigaon Superintendent of Police (SP) Aparna N. told IANS that after interrogating Mustafa, police produced him before the court on Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, the police have detained five teachers from another madrasa, meant for girls, in the Saruchala area of the district. SP Aparna said: “Their interrogation is going on, we have not arrested them so far.”

More details can be divulged only after further investigation, she added. It has been learned that the two madrasas were situated in interior areas of the district.

Besides Mustafa, others arrested include Afsaruddin Bhuyan (39), Abbas Ali (22), Jubair Khan (25), Rafiqul Islam (27), Dewan Hamidul Islam (20), Moinul Haque (42), Kajibur Hussain (37), Muzibaur Rahman (50), Shahanur Aslam and Sahjahan Ali (34).

A case (no 763/22) has been registered at Barpeta police station under Section 120(b)/121/121(A) IPC read with Section 17/18/18(B)/19/20 UA(P) Act, 1967. The arrests came after a long surveillance operation of Assam police and central agencies, said, senior police officials.

Reacting to the development, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said: “The government-run madrasas have already been shut down in the state. These are two religious madrasas. We have already sealed one and the district administration was instructed to shift the children from there to a nearby school.”

The state DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said that AQIS has shown signs of expanding its base in northeast Bharat. Recently, al-Qaeda leader Zawahiri issued an appeal to his groups to intrude in Assam, stated the Assam top cop.

He added: “Their quarterly magazine is now published in Bengali, with an aim to radicalize youths from Assam which may be very dangerous.”

Researchers have repeatedly found that madrasas are breeding grounds for Islamic radicalization. The number of madrasas, including unregistered and part-time ones, in Bharat, could be as high as 5 lakh. Yet, the secular Indian state continues pumping funds to ‘modernize’ madrasas instead of shutting them down and mainstreaming the education of Muslim children. At least Assam has stopped funding public madrasas, but private madrasas, often fueled through Gulf money, are still running unchecked.

References:

hindupost.in