Countering radicalisation in Assam with long-term vision

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Countering radicalisation in Assam with long-term vision

Monday, 08 August 2022 | Jaideep Saikia

Elimination of Ayaman al-Zawahiri is an opportunity for Assam administration to counter radical elements

The precision strike against Ayman al-Zawahiri will have far reaching implications for India. Indeed, the eliminated Al-Qaeda Emir’s gaze had already been on India ever since 3 October 2014 when he proclaimed the formation of

the Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent.

The ‘shadow of Zawahiri’ had encompassed the Rakhine province of Myanmar, Bangladesh, West Bengal and most of Assam. Moreover, Zawahiri had made controversial statements when the Hijab controversy broke in Karnataka. Although the recent arrests of several cadres of the Al-Qaeda affiliated Ansarullah Bangla Team from different places in Assam has not come as a surprise, the matter of concern is the state’s inability to fathom the extent to which the radicalisation efforts have taken place.

Indeed, the state has witnessed subterfuge by Islamists since the late 1990s when Pakistan-trained radical elements were arrested from the heart of Guwahati. However, the threat had all but weakened with en masse surrender of cadres after their return from places such as Batrasi in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). Indeed, by their own admission, the wayward group had realised that the motivation for which they had gone to train alongside tanzeems such as the ISI chaperoned Lashkar-e-Toiba were at variance with their local objectives to garner aspects such as reservations for Muslims in the legislature.

Nizam-e-Mustafa, which has become the primary goal for almost all Islamist groups that have a global bearing, was not in their agenda. The syncretism that characterised Assamese society of the time ascertained it and got disenchanted with the alien exhortation by the ISI, which had included assassination of political leaders and engineering of pogroms against the Bodo community, which sat cheek-by-jowl with the Muslims, and the belligerence dissipated.

However, there were some who, eschewing attention, continued with their sinister endeavours. Indeed, for a time it was felt that Assam was rid of the radical threat. But quite clearly they were silent, “not by the absence of activity but by the presence of non-activity”.

However, the present apprehensions of the Islamists that have brought back the limelight of the Islamist intimidation to Assam are not indicative of a turnaround in the Assamese Muslim psyche. While it is true that the target group for the Islamist minders have undergone a sea change and are directed primarily on the educated class, the fact of the matter is that an important constituency among the Muslim population of Assam ignored the overtures of the Islamists.

The atmosphere that prevails in the rest of the country, too, has had a sobering effect on the Muslim community, and it was evident that the quam sought no truck with the Islamists. In any event, the chaperons that are seeking to radicalise the Muslim community are exclusively from Bangladesh and have very little to do with the manner in which an indigenous Assamese Muslim identifies himself with the state’s inclusive character.

But the fact of the matter is that there is a clear move by the Islamists from Bangladesh to make inroads into the Muslim community of Assam. An alert Special Branch of the Assam Police has been able to pre-empt the attempts and, to a considerable extent, thwart at least the opening moves of the Islamists.

However, marshes and warrens are plentiful in the Lower and Middle Assam and it would be less than prudent to lower the vigilance that

has characterised the manner in which the Special Branch has, albeit temporarily, halted the march of the radicals. The porosity of the border with Bangladesh coupled with the pressure that the Islamists are facing in the country dictate greater watchfulness. After all, one of the primary motivation for the Bangladesh-based Islamists is to utilise the demographic jungle of Lower Assam as a safe haven and construct a “doorway” to metropolitan India in order to perpetrate terror which would be visible to a global audience.

Indeed, therein lies their intent. The fact that Ayman al-Zawahiri had mentioned Assam during his televised statement on 3 September 2014 when he announced the creation of the Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent must be seen in the light of the fact that that Assam and thereabouts had been in the Islamist radar with clearly such a purpose in mind.

Bangladesh, of course, is a crucial midpoint between the Islamist hotspots of South East Asia and West Asia. Bangladesh was the receptacle for the cross pollination between groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah and Jaish-e-Mohammad.

In any event, the accent of the present must be to ferret out the guest-radical elements that have entered Assam and stem the tide before it begins to mimic the flood waters that are upon the state. The establishment must also immediately psychologically segregate the Muslim community of Assam, co-opt them in its battle against the divisive agenda and announce resolve to root out the menace.

(The author is a conflict analyst)

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