On Wednesday, the Assam government asked the private madarsas in the state to provide detailed information about their institution including the location and profile of the teachers employed. The state said that the information shall be made available to the Secondary Education Department of the state government by December 1.
According to reports, the decision was taken in a meeting held at the Assam Police Headquarters in presence of the Director General of Police (DGP) Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta, director of secondary education Mamata Hojai, and other government officials. Representatives of madrasas including All Assam Tanzim Madaris Qaqmiya, All Assam Talimi Taraqqi Board, Madarsa Education Board Al Hafiz, and Adara Madaris Islamia who run private Madarsas in the state were also present at the meeting.
Assam | Private Madrasas in the state have been asked to provide all information about their institution, including the location of the institution & teachers’ details, to the state government by December 1 this year. (09.11.2022)
— ANI (@ANI) November 10, 2022
“The Madarsas will have to furnish the details to the directorate for secondary education via organizations under which they operate”, the official was quoted. Rajib Sakia, CRPO of Assam also said that a web portal would be developed where the information of all the private Madarsas will be uploaded. “The portal will be launched soon”, Sakia said.
Meanwhile, DGP Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta stated that police verification would mandatorily be conducted for those who come from outside of the state to engage as teachers in the private Madarsas. “There should be at least a 3 km distance between two Madarsas and the enrollment of each Madarsa should be at least 100 students”, he added.
Earlier in July this year, the state government had busted several jihadi terror modules being operated from a Madrasa. Later a Madarsa named Jamiul Huda Madrasa was also demolished under the Disaster Management Act & UAPA Act. According to the administration, the madrasa was built and operated without requisite permissions and was drawing electricity illegally.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma then had said that the state has become a hotbed of Jihadi activities, with terror modules being set up in Madrasas. “Jihadi activities in Assam have become an issue of grave concern, as several jihadi modules of Bangladeshi immigrants have been busted by the police. The aim of these madarsas has been to indoctrinate youth towards Sharia,” he said.
Later, the state formulated several rules to be followed by the Islamic schools. The government closed all the government run madarsas and converted them to general schools. Also several private madrasas in the state have come under scrutiny after instructors at these organizations were detained earlier this year for having alleged ties to Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT).
In September this year, Assam DGP held a meeting with representatives of Muslim groups to discuss the matter and sought their support in the crackdown on jihadi modules being run from mosques and madarsas. He asked many small madarsas set up by individuals that do not have any governing board to merge with larger institutionalised madarsas. He also asked the Muslim leaders to include general subjects like mathematics, science, computers, geography, history etc in madarsas apart from religious subjects.
Reportedly, 47 people this year, including teachers, have been jailed in the state for possessing suspected connections to fundamentalist organizations. The Assam Police has also handed over one case to the NIA.
