The North East India Emarat-E-Shariah and Nadwatut Tameer, a socio-religious organisation in the region, on Thursday said 57,000 madarsa graduates had sacrificed their lives in the freedom movement.

The organisation’s general secretary, Maulana Ataur Rahman Mazarbhuiyan, said: “The madarsas are educational institutions not only for teaching religious verses. Madarsa students are taught all modern subjects like students studying in other states as well as central boards. So, the state government has no valid reason to shut the madarsas and Sanskrit tols in the name of religious teachings,” Mazarbhuiyan said.

Earlier, education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that the Assam government had decided to convert all state-run madarsas and Sanskrit tols into high schools and higher secondary schools within four to five months, adding that the government should not bear the expense of religious teaching. So the state government, he said, decided to close such institutions.

Mazarbhuiyan said madarsa graduates of Assam were getting job opportunities in various countries of West Asia.

“Those employed in the West Asian countries have contributed a lot to the state exchequer through remittances. They have also reduced the ratio of unemployment in Assam. Considering all these, we urge the government to alter its decision of shutting the madarsas of the state,” he said.

According to Mazarbhuiyan, there are 707 madarsas in various parts of the state out of which 402 have been provincialised. “Lakhs of students studying in various standards in these madarsas will suffer because of the state government’s recent decision,” Mazarbhuiyan said.

He said the state government’s decision was against Articles 28, 29 and 30 of the Constitution. “Like the Aliha University of West Bengal and a number madarsa universities of Uttar Pradesh, the government of Assam should also establish a madarsa university in the state which we have been demanding since long instead of shutting the madarsas,” he added.

The organisation also submitted a memorandum to chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday evening urging him to alter the decision. “Instead of shutting, we urged the chief minister to improve the state-run madarsas of the state,” he added.

The All Assam Madrassa Students’ Association also urged the state government to alter its decision.