Jamiat-Ulama-i-Odisha asks madrasas to cooperate with government

BHUBANESWAR: Jamiat-Ulama-i-Odisha asked authorities of all madrasas in the state today to cooperate with the administration in the wake of al-Qaeda suspect Abdur Rahman's arrest.

"If the charges against Abdur Rahman are true, let him be punished. We condemn any kind of terror activities. But the innocent people from the community should not be harassed," JUIO General Secretary Mufti Md Ashraf Ali Qasmi told reporters here.

Odisha and Delhi police had on December 16 arrested 37-year-old cleric Abdur Rahman from his house in Cuttack district on the charge of having links with al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

Expressing surprise over alleged activities of Rahman, JUIO condemned any form of terrorism in a peace loving state like Odisha. "We are deeply hurt and pained over the recent development relating to arrest of a suspected terrorist in Odisha," JUIO President Maulana Md Jabir Qasim said.

"The government should not blame all the madrasas on the plea of misdeeds by one cleric Abdur Rahman," Quasmi said, claiming the community is facing difficulties as a section considers all madrasas as same.

"Madrasas do not preach the language of terror. There is a miscampaign against madrasas after Rahman's arrest," they said.

Asked whether the community would impose any 'fatwa' on Rahman's family as his elder brother was an accused in the US Embassy attack in Kolkata in 2002, Qasim said "Let the law take its own course. If he (Rahman) is guilty, the law will punish him."

The authorities of different madrasas should cooperate with the administration and police in the investigation, they said.

Official sources said there is only one madrasa run by the state government but 78 other such institutions get full government funding and 138 others get part grant-in-aid.