114 ‘Jihadis’ nabbed in Assam in last 10 years, says Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that 40 "Jihadis" have been detained this year alone, bringing the total number of "Jihadis" detained in the state over the past ten years is114.

Sarma said this while responding in writing to a question posed by Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed in the Assam Assembly, stating that of the 114 "Jihadis," 65 belonged to the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and nine to the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, a terrorist organization that has been banned. 

The chief minister also added in a separate response to BJP lawmaker Terash Gowalla that the list also includes 40 members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) who have been detained since March of this year. 

"Of the 114 cadres, 23 arrested individuals' cases were forwarded to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for investigation,’’ he said. 

As per reports, the cases of 54 of the remaining 91 people who were detained are still being investigated, while charge sheets have been filed against the remaining 37 of them, and they are currently in court.

Debabrata Saikia, the leader of the opposition, asked Sarma on a different matter, and Sarma said that since the BJP-led government took office in the state in 2016, 84 people have allegedly been detained for "Jihadi activities." 
Ten of the individuals detained in the previous six years, according to him, were connected to madrassas and attempted to persuade people by presenting lectures in mosques, madrassas, and other religious gatherings.

"They also distributed literature about jihad and spoke with one another via Omemo and Blabbr, two chat apps. No one has yet been murdered in such incidents "Sarma added. 

He also said that Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Morigaon, Dhubri, and Goalpara districts have been identified as hubs of “Jihadi activities" in the state.

"Jihadi activities are carried out by foreign nationals. Bangladesh is the most notable of these nations, Sarma informed the House. 

According to him, two of the 40 persons detained this year are women from the districts of Morigaon and Dhubri.
When asked to define a jihadi, Sarma responded, "A jihadi is a member of a fundamentalist group who uses violence to support terrorism."

'Jihad' is the term for the act of waging war by Muslim fundamentalist organizations against Muslims who are considered to be enemies. Jihadis are the name given to the members of such extreme groups "he explained. 

Sarma, who is also in charge of the Home portfolio, said that Assam's "char" (vegetative islands) areas had been fully mapped by Meghalaya's North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC).

Muslims who speak Bengali predominate in the state's "char" regions. Using multi-spectral satellite data, the NESAC study examined the chars over a 30-year period beginning in 1988 with a focus on their stability throughout the monsoon.

The report also made an effort to locate and map the "chars" that had settlements in 2017–18.