Congress legislators in Assam on Monday wrote to the National Commission for Minorities demanding an investigation into the demolition of a madrassa in the state’s Bongaigaon district that housed 224 students, reported PTI.
In their letter to National Commission for Minorities chairperson Iqbal Singh Lalpura, Congress MP Abdul Khaleque and MLAs Abdur Rashid Mondal, Pradip Sarkar, Asif Nazar and Abdul Batin Khandakar alleged that the state government demolished the madrassa “in blatant disregard to the rule of law”.
They asked the panel to ensure justice for the 224 students.
The Markazul Ma-Arif Quariayana Madrassa in Bongaigaon was demolished on August 31 after the administration issued an order claiming that it was “structurally vulnerable and unsafe for human habitation”.
The Bongaigaon deputy commissioner had issued the demolition order claiming that there were insufficient provisions at the madrassa to deal with a fire or an earthquake. The campus of the institution lacked adequate open space that can be used in the event of a disaster, the administration had said.
The Congress legislators, in their letter, said that the district administration did not give enough time to the 224 residential students of the madrasa, most of whom are minors, to vacate the premises.
“The students had to vacate in the middle of the night, and had no shelter as most of them came from far-off places,” they said.
The Congress leaders accused that the district administration was inhuman towards the students and denied them the right to education. The letter added that the madrassa had received permission from the panchayat for the construction.
The Congress legislators noted that the madrassa had been demolished after a teacher of the educational institution was arrested for allegedly being linked with terror groups.
“The arrested teacher has already been suspended and the madrassa management had extended full cooperation to the investigating agencies as they scanned the entire campus but no incriminating documents were found in the premises during the search by the agencies,” the letter read.
The police had alleged that two Bangladeshi terrorists linked to the Ansarullah Bangla Team, a banned Bangladesh-based terror outfit that is said to have links with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, or AQIS, had stayed at the madrassa.
The Assam government has been taking actions against madrassas claiming that they are involved in terror activities. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said on September 1 that if the government gets information on madrassas being used for anti-India activities, then they will be demolished.
Besides the madrassa in Bongaigaon, the Assam government has also demolished two other educational institutions.
The police have arrested at least 37 persons for allegedly having links with Ansarullah Bangla Team and AQIS.
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