The Bongaigaon district administration in lower Assam on Wednesday started the demolition of a two-storey private madrasa after it was found to be “unsafe” for human habitation.
The Bongaigaon district administration had on Tuesday ordered the demolition of the Markazul Ma-Arif Quariayana Madrasa at Kabaitari-4 village, about 40km from Bongaigaon town, except the masjid located inside the complex.The administration had found the madrasa building to be “hazardous to public, unsafe for continuous human habitation and aggravate the effects of unforeseen disaster”.
The demolition order cited four reports, including one from a PWD executive engineer which said the “structures are structurally vulnerable and unsafe for human habitation as the buildings were not built as per PWD specifications”.The demolition of the Bongaigaon madrasa, about 230km from capital Guwahati, follows the arrest of an assistant teacher Mufti Hafizur Rahman, 38, hailing from the same locality, on August 26 by the Goalpara police for his alleged link with terror groups.
Hafizur was teaching at the madrasa for around seven years and was held on August 26 on leads provided by two imams arrested on August 21 from adjoining Goalpara district.This is the third madrasa to be brought down since August, beginning with the one in the Morigaon district on August 4 followed by another in the Barpeta district on Monday.
They were also found to be unsafe for human habitation and set up in violation of rules, among others.The madrasa in the Morigaon district was demolished on August 4, nine days after its founder was arrested for his alleged links with a banned outfit. The second madrasa was demolished in the Barpeta district on Monday following the arrest of two brothers on Saturday for links with the banned outfit.The demolition of the madrasa in the Bongaigaon district started around 9.30am but by 6pm “only 50 per cent of the structure was brought down”, the madrasa committee president Musaraf Hussain told The Telegraph.
The demolition order cited four reports, including one from a PWD executive engineer which said the “structures are structurally vulnerable and unsafe for human habitation as the buildings were not built as per PWD specifications”.
Eight JCBs and one excavator were used for the demolition, sources said.There was no resistance or protest but the madrasa president said they had requested the administration to spare the madrasa. “It is very unfortunate that a teacher has been involved in the alleged acts and has been arrested. The law should take its course but people are hurt over the demolition,” Hussain, who has been president of the madrasa body since 2005.
The madrasa has 224 students, of which 163 are from outside. Officials said the 163 student-boarders were sent to their homes on Tuesday night. “We will facilitate their admission in regular schools if required,” one of them said. A report from an ADC said the madrasa “does not have sufficient necessary and essential documents to carry out multipurpose activities in a single campus with multiple buildings”.
