Assam: Morigaon Madrassa at centre of suspected terror module bulldozed by officials

A Madrassa at the epicentre of an alleged terror module in Middle Assam’s Morigaon district was on Thursday (August 4) razed to the ground on the orders of the local district administration, which has declared it “unfit as a structure.”

Early in the morning today, several officials reached the Jamiul Huda Madrassa, located in Saharia village, with clear intent. The Madrassa, made of straw bamboo with a tin roof, was easily bulldozed by a JCB.

This Madrassa was the same site, where Mustafa Mufti, a Muslim cleric, was arrested for operating an alleged terror module. Mufti, who has alleged links to the Ansar Ul-Islam, a chapter of Al-Qaida in the Indian sub-continent, has been accused of indoctrinating his wards by showing them content curated by radical terror groups. Nineteen (out of 45 total) students of the Madrassa were questioned by police in the case.

The Madrassa, which was opened in 2018, was shut down by authorities last Thursday (July 28).

The BJP-run State government has already shut all government-run Madrassas in the State. Only private Madrassas, like the Jamiul Huda, are still allowed to function. In the wake of the incident, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, has hinted that Madrassas will now be under the scanner of the state government.

Notably, Central investigation agencies such as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are also probing the suspected terror modules in Assam, with a flurry of arrests being made over the past one week.