Locals demolish madrassa in Goalpara district

A CORRESPONDENT

GOALPARA: The residents of a 'sar' or sandbar in the Goalpara district demolished a madrassa that had employed two suspected Bangladeshi nationals linked to terror organizations, the police claimed on September 6.

The locals of Darogar Alga village on Pakhiura Sar also brought down a house that adjoined the madrassa. The two suspected Bangladeshi nationals – Aminul Islam and Jahangir Alom – used to stay in this semi-permanent structure, a statement issued by the Assam Police said.

This is the first instance of voluntary demolition of an Islamic educational institution allegedly misused by "anti-India forces" after the local authorities bulldozed three in Morigaon and Bongaigaon districts in August.

"The voluntary demolition was an outcome of the strong resentment towards the jihadi activities that were being run from the madrassa," a spokesperson at the Assam police headquarters said.

The police had a few days ago arrested Jalaluddin Sheikh, who had engaged Islam and Alom as teachers at the Darogar Alga madrassa at different times during 2020-22. "The two Bangladeshi nationals, both members of the Bangladesh-based radical outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, have been absconding," the police said.

On September 4, Director-General of Police, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, said some Muslim MLAs and heads of four Islamic organizations that together run more than 1,000 private madrassas had promised to take action against madrassas and mosques involved in "jihadi" activities.

He also said that the police would launch a web portal specifically for madrassas to upload their details such as location, authorization certificates, names and addresses of teachers, the number of students and other relevant information.

The DGP justified the move to monitor the madrassas. "Our objective is to stop international conspiracies by al-Qaeda and rogue organizations such as (Pakistani) ISI to turn Assam into their jihadi playground," he said.

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