Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, announced new regulations on Monday, two days after two such clerics were detained for engaging in terrorist activities.
The state will now require religious instructors from mosques and madrasas from outside the form to register themselves on a government portal.
“The kingpin was one among those detained and was an imam at a mosque. In several villages, he had increased the Jihadi network’s size. Six people from Bangladesh entered Assam to spread the Jihadi network. Assam police have detained one of the six Bangladeshi nationals, while the other five are still at large. The Assam Police will go on with its duties “Sarma said.
“We now have certain Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that state you must notify the local police for verification if any Imams visit the hamlet. People may employ him as an imam if the police confirm his identity. The Assamese Muslim community is offering its support to us in this “Added him.
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Assamese citizens will not be subject to these regulations. “For people who live in Assam, there is no need to register their information. However, people who go from outside the state must register their information on the site “added the chief minister.
Recently, Mr. Sarma said that Assam had become a hub for “jihadi activity.” Five modules connected to the Bangladeshi terrorist organization Ansarul Islam were discovered in the last five months.
Since March of this year, the police have made over 40 arrests. They are monitoring closely, especially in the parts of lower and central Assam that are populated mainly by minorities, according to reports from news agency PTI, which cited authorities.
The two preachers recently detained in Assam’s Goalpara district are suspected of radicalizing Muslim youth in the region and maintaining ties to the terrorist organization Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).
Senior police officer VV Rakesh Reddy informed reporters on Monday in Goalpara that the police have filed a case against the two under the strict Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and are looking into more similar persons who are expected to be detained shortly.
Abdus Sobahan, a priest at Tinkonia Shantipur Masjid under Mornoi police station, and Jalaluddin, a cleric at Tilapara Masjid under Matia police station, have been named as the two individuals who were detained.
The policeman said that Sobahan was an AQIS member.
He said, “We have also uncovered that they had contacts with numerous jihadis caught in the state previously and another who was nabbed in West Bengal.” He claimed that both accused preachers have been radicalizing young men for the last three to four years.
According to Mr. Reddy, the police have taken various books, posters, and a cellphone from the two guys used to communicate with terrorists in Bangladesh.
They were turned over to the Goalpara Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court and placed in police detention for a week.
