Guwahati, Aug 04, 2022, IANS

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the state police have busted several modules of the Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent and the Bangladesh-based Ansarullah Bangla Team that were active to radicalise the youth of the state.

The Chief Minister while talking to the media on Thursday said that many cadres of the extremist outfits were arrested from some mosques and madrassas in the recent times.

Urging the people, especially those of the Muslim community, to inform the police if they witness a stranger in their locality serving as the Imam of a mosque or teacher of a madrassa, Sarma said that the police would verify their antecedents.

"Both the people and the law enforcing agencies have to keep a close vigil on the Imams and the madrassa teachers, specially those are strangers," he said.

The Assam government has already closed down 800 government-run madrassas last year.

All government-run madrassas in Assam were abolished and over 620 such institutions converted into general schools from April 1 last year.

The Chief Minister said that consultations were on at different levels with all stakeholders on the 800 Quomi madrassas which are among 1,500 private madrassas functional in the state.

"The number of madrassas does not automatically signify the number of 'jihadis'. Our objection is only against unfamiliar teachers and Imams. They are using some madrassas as their shelter and we have to find those madrassas," he said.

The Chief Minister said that the government did not find any links between the radical group Popular Front of India (PFI) and the five modules busted by the police in some districts of Assam.

"However, the PFI is creating an ecosystem... the PFI is creating a sentiment against Assam that Muslims have been vicitmised in Assam.

"The five modules busted by the Assam police in the last five months were involved in radicalising people," Sarma stated.

Tripura police have also arrested three cadres of 'jihadis' and they have links with those arrested in Assam.

Incriminating documents, books, including "jihadi literature", were recovered from them.

Claiming that Assam has been for quite some time on the Al-Qaeda's radar, he said the police found the involvement of six Bangladeshi nationals in radicalising the youths of Assam.

One of them, Mohammad Suman, was arrested while the others had gone into hiding and they had entered into Assam in 2016-17, The Chief Minister said, adding that Suman, who came to Assam from West Bengal and then married a local girl in Barpeta and settled down there.

He was found working as the Imam of a mosque, Sarma added.

The Chief Minister said that the government is yet to know exactly how many Bangladeshi nationals entered Assam to indulge in such inimical activities and how many from Assam went to Bangladesh.

He said that the communication mode and technology of these Islamic fundamentalists groups are found to be highly-sophisticated and complicated.

"They use some apps that are unknown to us. These made it very difficult for us to track them," Sarma said, adding that funds were sent to them online in small amounts of Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 so that nobody suspects them.

"All Muslims are not fundamentalists. In fact, we managed to bust the modules and make the arrests based on inputs shared by some peace-loving and law-abiding Muslims," the Chief Minister added.