Residents of a village in Assam’s Goalpara district who demolished a madrassa earlier this week, have now claimed that they did so on instructions from the police, PTI reported on Saturday. The police, however, have said that the allegations were baseless.
On Tuesday, reports had said that locals living near a madrassa in the Darogar Alga char – a sandbar – in Goalpara had razed the educational institute, along with a reed house in the premises, as a cleric associated with it had been arrested for allegedly being involved in anti-national activities.
On Saturday, Rahim Badshah, a villager, told PTI that he was among those who razed the two structures. “I was working in my jute field on the riverside when Shukur Ali [another villager] called me to the madrasaa compound,” he said. “He asked me and five-six others to help him demolish them.”
Ali claims to be a Bharatiya Janata Party worker.
Badshah told the news agency that when he reached the madrassa premises, some mediapersons were already present there. “When I asked Ali why we should demolish the madrasa, he said that [the] SP [superintendent of police] and DSP [deputy superintendent of police] sirs have asked us to do so.”
Goalpara Superintendent of Police VV Rakesh Reddy said that the allegations were completely false, The Indian Express reported.
“Some local villagers got agitated after they got to know the madrassa premises were being used for anti-Indian activities,” he said. “They pulled down the structure in resentment and set an example that they would not want to be party to any anti-India activity. It was a voluntary act and the administration or police were not part of it.”
Another villager, Somesh Ali, claimed that the structures were demolished as the villagers were scared that authorities might enter the area with bulldozers. However, Reddy denied the claim.
“It is a char, a sandbar,” the superintendent of police said. “How can someone go with bulldozer there. It is absolutely baseless.”
While the residents razed the madrassa in Golapara, the Assam government has demolished three other such institutions in a month since the police stepped up their operations against alleged modules of Ansarullah Bangla Team, a banned Bangladesh-based terror outfit that is said to have links with Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, or AQIS.
Last month, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that these institutions were being used as hubs for terrorism.
“All demolished madrasas were not madrassas but Al-Qaeda offices,” Sarma claimed on Wednesday. “We demolished two-three [of them] and now the public is coming to demolish others. The Muslim community is coming to demolish, saying that they do not want a madrassa where the work of Al-Qaeda is done.”
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!