After the Covid contempt, Assam gov once again target the Imam.

Guwahati: Assam Terrorism link , Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that the state government is preparing standard operating procedure (SOP) for new imams who are coming to the state from outside.

The development comes after the arrest of two imams from Lower Assam’s Goalpara district for alleged links with the Bangladesh-based radical Islamic group Ansar-ul-Islam.

Sarma said that under the proposed SOP, people will be requested to immediately report to the police when an imam or preacher comes to their madrassa mosque for religious purposes or teaching.
Appealing to people, especially those from the Muslim community, to inform the police if they see a stranger working as an imam of a mosque or madrassa teacher in their locality, Sarma said the police will confirm their previous events.
“It (reporting the imam to the police) is not mandatory for the local imam,” he said.

Asserting that the Muslim community in Assam was helping the authorities to nab ‘jihadis’, Sarma, who also holds the home portfolio, said the government had launched a scheme to register the names of imams coming from outside.
He said that two imams have been arrested two days ago for having ‘jihadi’ links and one of the arrested persons is the leader of this group and five more such ‘jihadis’ are yet to be arrested.

Sarma had earlier said that the state police had busted several modules of Al-Qaeda in the subcontinent and Bangladesh-based Ansarullah Bangla Team, which were active in radicalizing the youth of the state.

The Chief Minister said terrorism link that many  organizations have been arrested from some mosques and madrasas in recent days.

“Both the public and law enforcement agencies have to keep a close eye on imams and madrasah teachers, especially those who are foreigners,” he said.