Assam police is working with Muslims in the state to rationalise madrasa education following the alleged involvement of Islamic clerics in 'jihadi' activities, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.
The state police busted eight modules of terrorist organisations Ansarul Bangla Team and Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent during the just concluded year in which 51 people were arrested and direct involvement of nine Bangladeshis was detected for operating from some private madrasas, the Chief Minister said during an interaction with media persons here.
The police are coordinating with Bengali Muslims who have positive attitude towards education to create a good environment in the madrasas, he said. In the madrasas science and mathematics will be taught, right to education respected and a database of teachers maintained, he said. Besides, all teachers who have come from outside Assam to teach in the madrasas must also appear at regular intervals in the nearest police station.
''The police under the directive of Director General of Police B J Mahanta are working with the Muslim community to rationalise Madrasa education. Instead of considering them as enemies, we are making them as stakeholders,'' he said. Elaborating, he said there are many areas in some districts where there are only Bengali Muslims and they have to be the stakeholders.
Sarma, who is also the state home minister, said that 2022 also witnessed the end of tribal and adivasi insurgency in the state with the surrender of 7229 cadres of different outfits following agreement with the central and state governments. The police seized 757 sophisticated arms, 5983 assorted ammunitions, 131 grenades. 26 improvised explosive devices (IED) and 52 kgs of explosives from NDFB, NLFT, Karbi, Dimasa and Adivasi insurgents but voluntary submissions were more than seizures.
Another major achievement of the state police was the arrest of the most-wanted Maoist leader Arun Kumar Bhattacharya alias Kanchanda, who had a reward of Rs 3.40 crore on his head. His arrest had dealt a death blow to left wing extremism, Sarma said. The Assam police also seized drugs worth Rs 781 crore, one of the largest haul in the country excluding by sea, as against Rs 400 crore the previous year. "This was possible as Assam Police worked in tandem with the central agencies," he said.
The union ministry of home affairs has created a grid of central and state agencies leading to the seizure of narcotics of huge quantity from Assam, which included 111 kgs of heroin, 48,000 kgs of ganja, 62 lakh Yaba tablets, 401 kgs of methamphetamine, 2.11 lakh bottles of cough syrup, eight kgs of morphine and 214 kgs of opium.
''It is not that drugs of this quantity are consumed in the state. Assam serves as the corridor for their transit to other parts of the country. We (Assam government) are fulfilling a national obligation to save the young people by seizing the drugs in the state and preventing it from reaching to the other parts," Sarma added. Corruption, however, continues to be a big menace and 50 government employees were caught red handed while taking bribe amounting to a total Rs 1.12 crore during the last year, he added.
