Guwahati, Sep 6,2022: The villagers of Pakhiura Char in western Assam’s Goalpara district on Tuesday demolished a private madrassa that had employed two suspected Bangladeshi nationals linked to Jihadi terror outfits, police officials said.

An Assam police spokesman said that local people of Pakhiura Char (Darogar Alga) voluntarily demolished the madrassa and the residence adjacent to it (madrassa), which was previously used by two suspected Bangladeshi nationals with terror links. “The local people following a strong resentment towards the Jihadi activities on their own knock down the madrassa and the adjoining residence. Aminul Islam alias Usman alias Mehdy Hasan and Jahangir Alom were residing in the residence,” the spokesman said.

Aminul and Jahangir, both are absconding cadres of Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent and the Ansarul Bangla Team, a Bangladesh-based terror outfit. The police said that Jalaluddin Sheikh, who was recently arrested for his terror links, engaged Aminul and Jahangir as teachers of this Pakhiura Char Madrassa at different times during 2020 to 2022.

This is the first such instance in Assam that local people voluntarily demolished an Islamic educational institution which has been reportedly misused by “anti-India terror groups”.

Last month, the district administrations in Morigaon and Bongaigaon districts bulldozed three madrassas for their suspected terror links. Assam’s Director-General of Police, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta earlier said that some Muslim MLAs and heads of four Islamic organisations run more than 1,000 private madrassas, and during a recent meeting they had promised to take action against madrassas and mosques involved in ‘Jihadi’ activities.

The police chief had said that a web portal would be launched soon and madrassa functionaries will have to mandatorily upload the details about the madrassa, their locations, authorisation certificates, names and addresses of teachers, the number of students and other relevant information.

The Assam Police chief on Sunday held a meeting with Muslim organisations and board of madrassas and urged them to maintain vigilance and follow the procedures while engaging teachers (Imams) from outside the state, and also verify the necessary details including the identity. The directive has come in the backdrop of the arrest of 37 Jihadi cadres in little over a month in Assam for their alleged links with the Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent and the Ansarul Bangla Team.