Guwahati:With proof of widening of jehadi network in Assam coming to the fore post the Burdwan blasts, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has admitted that the Islamic fundamentalists have penetrated newer regions in the state and posed a serious threat to national security.
Stating that jehadi terror was a threat to the whole country, the Chief Minister in an interview with UNI said the jehadis were spreading their tentacles in newer areas and were getting some amount of help from terror groups of the state also.
‘There may be some difference in ideology among these terror groups. But they have one thing in common, i.e. they want to create disturbance and instability’, he said.
‘Jehadi terror,once confined to specific regions, has acquired a global dimension and is rearing its ugly head in different parts of the world.’
‘The jehadis are a threat to the whole country. We are taking steps so that these groups cannot succeed in their hate-agenda here,’ Mr Gogoi said.
‘They (jehadis) may be able to create some problems but they cannot threaten the unity of the nation,’ he added.
The CM said foreign elements were suspected to be related or behind some of the jehadi groups but there was no evidence to proof the links.
He, however, refused to link the growing presence of jehadis in the state to the problem of Bangladeshi infiltration.
‘We admit that some amount of infiltration takes place. But it is a different issue. Jehadis have been proven to be working in states without such problem of infiltration,’ Mr Gogoi pointed out.
Mr Gogoi said that jehadi presence in the state was detected way back in 1995 and steps were immediately initiated to curtail their activities.
‘But terror has taken a global turn. It is no longer confined to some countries as earlier. The links are wider now and we also cannot escape it,’ he said.
The growing presence of the jehadis in the state had come to the fore when a resident from Assam’s Barpeta district, Sahanur Alom was named among the accused in the Burdwan blasts by the NIA.
Sahanur’s brother, wife and father-in-law have already been arrested for their links with the jehadis, though Sahanur is still at large.
Police claim that Sahanur and his wife, Sujina, had received jehadi training, along with others from Assam, at madrassas in West Bengal.
Several jehadi linkmen have also been appre-hended in the state in the past.(UNI)
