Assam Varsity Owner, Who CM Himanta Accused Of ‘Flood Jihad’, Arrested From Guwahati

Mahbubul Hoque, the owner of the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM), a private educational institution has been arrested by the Assam police from his residence in Guwahati. 

Hoque faced a series of attacks from Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma which included allegations of ‘flood jihad’. His arrest was confirmed by a senior Assam police official who said the action has been taken in connection with a case registered in Sribhumi district on Friday, reported The Indian Express. 

As per the police, a “law and order” situation arose at the Central Public School in the Patharkandi area of Sribhumi district during the CBSE class 12 physics examination held on Friday.

The police further said that the school is run by the Education and Research Development (ERD) Foundation founded by Hoque, which also runs the USTM.

Of the 274 students who sat for the exam, 214 were enrolled in Vision 50, a special coaching programme run by USTM. It has been alleged that the students “created a law and order situation” by alleging that when they were enrolled in the programme, they were promised “necessary assistance” by invigilators to pass the examination, which they did not receive.

Hoque’s arrest comes days after CM Himanta alleged that USTM is “fraudulent” and issuing “fake certificates and degrees” to students, the latest in a series of attacks by the Chief Minister. 

The institution — the lone private university from the Northeast to make it into the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2024 — denied the allegations as “unfounded.” 

Last year in August, Sarma invoked the term “flood jihad” to pin the blame of flash floods in Guwahati on construction work in USTM, located in Meghalaya’s Ri-Bhoi district. Himanta alleged that deforestation and hill-cutting for the campus were responsible for the flash floods. 

Hoque is a Muslim of Bengali origin from Assam’s Karimganj district in the Barak Valley. He is also the Chancellor of the University which is promoted by the Education Research and Development Foundation, also founded by Hoque. 

A week after the flood jihad charge, Sarma accelerated his attack on the university over three domes atop the main gate of the institution saying: “It’s embarrassing to go there, you have to go under ‘Mecca’.” 

What we are saying is that there should be a namghar (community prayer hall, part of Assam’s neo-Vaishnavite tradition) also there. ‘Mecca-Medina’, church. Make all three… They have kept a ‘Mecca’ there. Let them make a namghar, make a church. We will walk under all three, why will we walk under just one,” he said.