Three days after the fourth madrasa of Assam was razed on September 6, allegedly due to links with terror outfits, allegations from villagers of Darogar Alga in Pakhiura Char of the state’s Goalpara district have come to the fore.
Darogar Alga villagers said Pakhiura Char Madrasa was demolished after a person from the village, who had connections with the cops, was told by senior police officers to do so.
Rahim Badshah, a villager, said he was one of the persons who pulled down the madrasa and a reed house on the same premises and said he did it after he was asked by another villager to do so.
He claimed Shukur Ali, another villager, asked him to reach the madrasa complex, where he was asked to help him demolish it along with other locals. Badshah said Ali told him that Goalpara SP and DSP had asked him to demolish the madrasa.
Ali had reportedly corroborated Badshah’s claims that media was present near the madrasa before it was devised to cover the process. However, he didn’t comment on the claims that he was asked by the police to demolish it.
Talking to The Indian Express, Goalpara SP VV Rakesh Reddy said: “These allegations are totally false. We made our comments previously after the madrasa was pulled down and we shall reiterate those. Some local villagers got agitated after they got to know the madrasa premises were being used for anti-Indian activities. They pulled down the structure in resentment and set an example that they wouldn’t want to be party to any anti-Indian activity. It was a voluntary act and the administration or police weren’t part of it.”
Somesh Ali, another villager, said the villagers pulled down the structures as they got scared that security forces would enter their ‘char’ or sandbar with bulldozers. Rubbishing the claims, the SP told The Indian Express: “It’s a char, a sandbar. How can someone go with bulldozer there (over the water). It’s absolutely baseless.”
With PTI inputs
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
