Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Assam government has been following a Zero-tolerance policy on terrorism and religious radicalism. He has successfully dismantled the Jihadi network in the state and now wants to completely wipe out the Jihadis from India. For this, he wants strong actions on foreign entities funding Jihadis.
Massive Crackdown on Jihadis
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma is a no-nonsense kind of politician. He doesn’t mince his words and calls spade a spade. Now he has set his aim to annihilate the funding sources of the Jihadi network. He stated that all the Jihadi networks are thriving because of foreign funding. Hence, he wants the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the cases and destroy the All India network of Jihadis.
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For this, he is in talks with Union Home Minister Amit Shah regarding the matter. The CM gave details about the crackdown operations. He said, “During the probe, we found that its all India network Jihadis, supported by foreign soil”. While responding to the arrests of terror accused he said, “We had a long history of preventing Islamic aggression, we defeated them 17 times”.
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The Assam Police sources claim that Jihadis from Bangladesh visit India on religious and medical visas. These jihadis radicalise youth in the name of CAA and NRC. Earlier, the Assam police had arrested 16 jihadis and busted their terror modules. The terror accused had links with Bangladesh-based terror outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). The ABT has links with the dreaded UN-designated terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda.
Religious Radicalisation
Assam shares its border with Bangladesh and regularly faces the problem of illegal migrants and religious radicalism. These illegal migrants first assimilate into the locals and create law and order issues. Later, they try to change the demographic composition of the state and cause communal tensions. Hence, the Himanta-led administration has a strong mechanism for illegal migrants and radical groups.
Moreover, the Assam government had passed a law to shut down all the government-run Madrassas in the state. These Madrassas were converted into general schools. This was done to provide modern education to poor kids instead of keeping them in a vicious cycle. Moreover, this limits the job opportunities for Muslim youth.
Madrassas in many cases have been used for religious indoctrination. Religious preachers have been fueling radicalism, and hatred for other communities, the notorious example being Zakir Naik. The Home Ministry had banned his foundation, Islamic Research Foundation under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
Foreign Funding for causing trouble in India
It has been found that many organisations receive money from foreign soil to cause anarchy and bloodshed in India. Evidently, the Ministry of Home Affairs had revoked the FCRA registration of a trust that was accused of inciting Delhi riots in 2020. Furthermore, some organisations have also been used as a network to run Conversion rackets. To tackle this menace, the MHA had taken action against 13 NGOs involved in the forced religious conversion of Tribals.
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Foreign funding in jihadi networks can be a double whammy for the country. Hence, it is evident to take stringent action on these networks and their foreign funding entities. The Assam government has done a tremendous job in dismantling terror networks and hence other states should learn and replicate this ‘Assam Model’ for the crackdown on terror groups.