Assam Muslim leader denies jihadi charges

Badruddin Ajmal, chairman of AIAUDF, Assam's leading Opposition party, has rubbished media reports about his party sending more than 40 Muslim youths to Bangladesh for jihadi training as 'motivated malice'.

"When Sheikh Hasina's government is cracking down hard and true on jihadis and north-eastern rebels in Bangladesh and all those elements are running into West Bengal and Assam, why should our boys go to Bangladesh for jihadi training?" Ajmal told bdnews24.com in an exclusive interview.

"Does water flow upward? These media reports are malicious and are planted by right wing elements who are apprehensive at the rise of AIAUDF," Ajmal said.

A Delhi based English TV channel has recently reported that 40 Muslim young men supporting AIAUDF have received jihadi training in Rangpur in Bangladesh. The report was picked up by several newspapers in Assam.

"For a very long time, Assam police have developed a habit of blaming all explosions on jihadis, but ultimately investigators find the hand of ULFA or NDFB or some other tribal militant group," said Ajmal in his MP quarter at Delhi's South Avenue.

"During the 2008 serial explosions in Assam, jihadis were blamed but ultimately it was found the Bodo militants of NDFB were involved."

Ajmal said blaming jihadis for blasts is a good way of getting central funds for state police which is then pilfered by senior officials.

"As an MP, I am asking the government to investigate how an Assam police official has managed to set up an ultra modern recording studio in Bombay," he said.

Ajmal claimed that the AIAUDF may have started off with an agenda to protect minority rights, but after the fast demise of the Congress, it was emerging as the 'main secular democratic alternative in Assam'.

"Large number of secular Assamese and other communities are joining our party. This has alarmed right wing elements who want to wrest Assam in 2016 state elections. So they are using a section of the media to malign us but this will not work," Ajmal said.

The AIAUDF started off in 2006 and doubled its tally to 17 in the state assembly in the 2011 Assam state elections.

"Don't be surprised if we again double our tally."

Ajmal said that the NIA investigators have said in their report on Oct 2 Burdwan blasts that JMB jihadis had moved into West Bengal in large numbers.

"That happened because these jihadis cannot survive in Bangladesh anymore. So if Bangladeshi jihadis cannot survive in their country and are running into India, why should any jihadi in Assam go to Bangladesh for training?" asked Ajmal.

Maulana Ajmal and his brother Sirajuddin are both MPs in Lok Sabha.

AIAUDF has three seats in Indian parliament, as many as Assam's ruling Congress, while the BJP, which secured seven Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 polls is looking to come to power in the north-eastern state in 2016 when it goes to polls.