Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Monday said that the police would verify the identity of all imams (clerics) of the Muslim community, who have come from outside the state. Sarma’s announcement follows a series of arrests of individuals who allegedly have links to Al Qaeda-affiliated terror outfits in Bangladesh. Some of these include imams of mosques as well as teachers of madrasas.
“We have made a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) — if a new imam [from outside] comes to the village, the villagers should report it to the local police station, and the police will verify the identity,” Sarma told reporters Monday. He also said a government portal would be made, on which imams and madrasa teachers would have to register themselves.
Officials in the state’s home and political department, however, told indianexpress.com that they were not aware of such an SOP yet.
Assam DGP Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta said that a “master directory” of all the madrasas being run in the state would be created. “Going forward, we want to create a master directory of all the madrasas being run in Assam. A tough job, as many of them are unregistered and unauthorised.
“Our objective – to prevent Anti-India, jihadi elements from utilizing the madrasas for their nefarious fundamentalist purposes,” the state police chief tweeted, following a meeting with Maulana Abdul Qadir, Secretary, Tanzim Council, which runs several madrasas in Assam.
Earlier this month, Sarma had said that Assam had become a “hotbed for Islamic fundamentalism”. Between March and August, the Assam Police — in collaboration with central agencies — claimed that they busted five “jihadi” modules with links to Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), a banned terror outfit of Bangladesh with links to Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
“Five modules [busted] in five months… so the issue is serious,” Sarma had said, addressing a press conference in Guwahati Thursday.
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On Saturday, two more were arrested. Both imams in Goalpara district, Abdus Sobahan and Jalaluddin, were allegedly involved in “indoctrinating” Muslim youths. They have been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
“Both the clerics were radicalising youths for the last three to four years. They have links with several jihadis arrested in the state and another who was apprehended in West Bengal,” Goalpara SP VV Rakesh Reddy told reporters. Sarma said that one of them was working in a mosque, but he was a “kingpin”.
Sarma earlier said that six Bangladeshi nationals had entered the state illegally to “indoctrinate youths”, and one of them — Mohammed Suman — was arrested from Barpeta in March. He had said that some use the guise of being imams and madrasa teachers to further their network. “The hub of activities of all the [terror] modules” were turning out to be madrasas,” Sarma had said.
