Guwahati: Days after one of its teachers was arrested for his alleged terror links, a madrasa in Assam’s Bongaigaon district was demolished Wednesday by the district administration in the third such case in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Northeast state
in the past one month.
Similar demolitions had taken place in Barpeta and Morigaon districts on 29 August and 4 August.
In the latest case, the administration brought down several structures at the campus of Marakazul MaArif Quariayana Madrasa in Kabaitary Part-IV village.
On Tuesday, the police raided the shop of the arrested teacher, Hafizur Rahman Mufti, at the madrasa campus during which they confiscated “incriminating material”, including a leaflet of Bangladesh-based Islamic group Ansarullah Bangla Team and a suspected logo of the al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
The order issued by the district administration, meanwhile, said that the madrasa faced action for violating the Disaster Management Act as its structures were found to be “structurally vulnerable and unsafe for human habitation”.
“It has also been reported that there was insufficient provision to mitigate any possible disaster like fire, earthquake, evacuation of residents nor is there provision of adequate open space to be used in case of disaster anytime,” the order stated.
ThePrint has a copy of the order.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asserted that action was being taken against those madrasas which had links with terror. “We don’t have any intention to go on demolishing madrasas. Our intention is to see that they’re not used by jihadi elements. If we get specific inputs that the institution is being used under the guise of madrasa for anti-India activities, we will raze them,” Sarma told the media.
In the Barpeta case, a report had quoted a letter by district police head Amitava Singha as saying that the private madrasa had alleged links with Bangladesh-based terror outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and that the land where it stood belonged to the state government.
Demolition in Morigaon had followed after the arrest of Mufti Mustafa Ahmed, who was running the madrasa, for allegedly harbouring links with radical Islamic group Ansar al-Islam.
Also Read: District officials raze 90 homes of ‘encroachers’ in Assam’s Karimganj, residents cry foul
Action preceding the Bongaigaon demolition
On Friday, police arrested madrasa teacher Hafizur Rahman Mufti following leads given by two imams, who were held from Goalpara district for their alleged links with Ansar al-Islam.
“Hafizur Rahman Mufti confessed to being a member of the AQIS and the ABT also… He had been recruited by the person (imam) we had arrested initially, Abdul Subhan,” Goalpara Superintendent of Police V. V. Rakesh Reddy told ThePrint.
The Tuesday raid was conducted by a joint team of Goalpara and Bongaigaon police. “We searched a small shop run by him (Rahman) after going through his statement. We recovered incriminating material, including a pamphlet of ABT and a suspected logo of AQIS,” Reddy added.
Following the raid, the district administration Tuesday evening ordered the demolition of the madrasa, where 224 students were studying.
“We received the order and acted upon it immediately. We relocated the 163 students who were there last night. All of them were taken to safe places and the demolition started in the morning,” Bongaigaon Superintendent of Police Swapneel Deka told reporters.
All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) legislator Aminul Islam hit out at the Assam government for the demolition of madrasas in Morigaon, Barpeta and Bongaigaon.
“If some extremists are in a village, they can’t demolish the village. You can’t demolish the homes,” Islam told ThePrint. “This is being done just to create panic among the Muslim community, and create tensions between the Hindus and the Muslims before the 2024 elections,” he claimed.
Assam BJP state president Bhabesh Kalita asserted that there was ‘no politics involved’ in the action that had taken place. “This is where the jihadi activities are much more (taking place). That’s why according to the administration process, the madrasa was destroyed… It has been done to control the jihadi activity,” Kalita claimed.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: ‘Madrasas should disappear, Muslims originally Hindus’: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma at RSS event