Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday that the bust of at least five modules of a Bangladesh-based Islamist fundamentalist groups since March indicates that technology-savvy foreign trainers are threatening to turn the State into an Islamist hub.
“Technology-savvy foreign trainers who “blend in” are threatening to turn Assam into an Islamist hub,” he said.
“The degree of sophistication in the communication technology and brainwashing methods used by such trainers, masquerading as imams of mosques or teachers of madrassas, came to light after the police busted at least five modules of a Bangladesh-based fundamentalist group since March,” the Chief Minister said.
“The five modules are of the Ansarul Bangladesh Team (ABT), a banned outfit in Bangladesh and an affiliate of the al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) that is trying to spread jihad across India,” Mr. Sarma told journalists.
“Apart from Mohammed Suman, a Bangladesh national and a key accused in the radicalisation of local youths, we have arrested several people from four districts. Literature encouraging jihad and other material indicate is becoming a networking hub of Islamists,” he said.
The Chief Minister said Suman, a resident of Bangladesh’s Narayanganj, had illegally entered Assam through the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal and settled in Barpeta district in 2018. He married a local woman, joined a private Islamic academy as an Arabic teacher as well as an imam of a mosque in Barpeta’s Howly.
Mr. Sarma said the police have identified another five Bangladeshi nationals who had illegally entered Assam in 2016-17 and they are at large. “All the modules are connected to a wider network of indoctrination,” he added.
Special apps, encryption
The Chief Minister said the radicals associated with the modules use highly sophisticated technology that even cyber experts are finding difficult to monitor.
“They have messaging systems with peer-to-peer encryption, unknown apps for one-time use and deletion and self-destruct programmes. Their financial transactions have also been in small doses to avoid suspicion,” he said.
The ABT and AQIS operatives in Assam have received money from certain accounts in Bangladesh and other foreign countries in tranches of ₹20,000-30,000 frequently, Mr. Sarma said.
Watch on madrassas
Assam had a few months ago closed down some 800 government-run madrassas and converted most of them into regular schools.
After the arrest of a few teachers linked to fundamentalist and terror groups, the government is keeping a watch on some madrassas as well as mosques.
“Assam has some 1,500 private madrassas that are recognised by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind. We are exploring ways of registering them and document the teachers,” Mr. Sarma said.
“But madrassas do not automatically signify they produce jihadis. Our complaint is only against unknown teachers and imams. They are using some madrassas as their shelter. We shall keep a watch on them,” he said.
Help from Muslims
The Chief Minister said the government has been able to crack down on Islamists with the help of local Muslims.
“It will be very wrong to brand all Muslims as fundamentalists. We managed to bust the modules and make the arrests based on inputs shared by some peace-loving Muslims,” he said, appealing to the people, especially Muslims, to report to the police mosques and madrassas employ non-local people or strangers.
“We will verify their antecedents. We have to keep a close watch on the imams and the madrassa teachers,” he added.
Lockdown activities
Mr. Sarma said five Bangladesh-linked terror and radicalisation modules, mostly in Barpeta, were busted between 1999 and 2021. Whereas, the busting of such modules in the past five months suggests that the (radicalisation) activities have increased exponentially.
“We found out that the radical elements had stepped up indoctrination and arms training during the first COVID-19 lockdown when the world beyond was battling the novel coronavirus,” he said.
“We don’t know how many Bangladeshi nationals entered Assam to indulge in such activities and how many from Assam went to Bangladesh in the past few years. Various other modules could be active in Assam, which are led by Bangladeshi nationals but have not yet come under the radar of the police,” Mr. Sarma said.
He also said the government has not found any direct link between the five busted modules and the Popular Front of India (PFI), which is associated with the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
“But there is a scientific progression beginning with whipping up the sentiment that Muslims are victimised in Assam. The PFI has created the ecosystem of pushing people to indoctrination for the likes of ABT and AQIS to exploit,” Mr. Sarma said.
