Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on January 1 stated that the state’s Jihadi activities are being combated by the Assam Police.
He said, “Assam Police under the leadership of DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta has been actively working with the Muslim community of Assam to rationalise the madrassa education and cracking jihadi module in the state” while interacting with editors and senior journalists of newspapers, TV channels, and digital platforms on the first day of the New Year, 2023, titled NOTUN DINOR AALAP at Koinadhora in Guwahati.
“2022 has been very important for us as we cracked several modules of the Jihadi’s and arrested many individuals from different parts of the state,” CM Sarma added.
According to CM Sarma, the Muslim communities have given the government their full support in thwarting jihadist activities.
“Several people have been identified and arrested linked to Jihadi. As many as 9 Bangladeshi people have been identified for their direct involvement in the Jihadi activities in the state. Many Ansarullah Bangla Team cadres were also arrested last year”, Sarma said.
He said that 9 modules had been broken into and as many as 51 individual jihadi-linked cadres had been arrested.
“War against drugs, a war against jihadi, a war against fundamentalist have all been possible as the government considered the Muslim community people who helped them as stakeholders,” Sarma said.
On December 25, Chief Minister Sarma said that Assam Police had detained 53 “jihadis” in all including a citizen of Bangladesh.
On the final day of the winter session of the Assam Assembly, Sarma responded to a question from BJP MLA Terash Gowala by stating that since March of this year, a total of nine cases have been filed in seven districts throughout the state: Bongaigaon, Morigaon, Dhubri, Barpeta, Goalpara, Tamulpur, and Nalbari.
”These seven districts have been the sources of alleged ‘jihadi’ activities in Assam,” he added.
He further informed that a Bangladeshi national identified Saiful Islam also known by the aliases Haroon Rashid and Suman had been arrested in connection with a case that had been reported to the Barpeta police station.
”He was involved as an ‘imam’ of a mosque in the Barpeta district and was also working as an Arabic teacher in an Islamic academy there. He was distributing booklets related to jihadis and was encouraging Muslims to get involved in ‘Jihadi’ activities through his speeches,” Sarma said.
The Assam CM added that five further individuals are allegedly committing acts of ‘jihad’ while on the run and giving talks to Muslim youths in various mosques around the districts.