Assam: 3 held associated with opening of controversial ‘Miya Museum’

Guwahati: Assam police detained three persons including the president and general secretary of the Miya Parishad, the official said on Wednesday.

This move comes after the controversial ‘Miya Museum’ was sealed on Tuesday, which was set up in a house allotted under PMAY in Assam’s Goalpara district.

On Tuesday night, Miya Parishad general secretary Abdul Baten Sheikh was arrested from his home in Alamganj of the Dhubri district while Miya Parishad president M. Mohar Ali was picked up from the museum at Dapkabhita in Goalpara district while he was standing in a dharna, sources said.

Meanwhile, Tanu Dhadumia, who had inaugurated the museum on Sunday, was detained from his residence in Kawamari village in Dibrugarh, sources added.

The trio was brought to Nalbari in connection with a case filed at the Ghograpar police station under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for an investigation and questioning regarding their alleged ties to the Ansarul Bangla Team (ABT) and Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS).

The ‘Miya Museum’ at Dapkabhita sealed, and put up a notice on the orders of the deputy commissioner, sources said.

Senior BJP leaders demanded its immediate shutdown after the opening ceremony on Sunday, while Abdur Rahim Gibran, a member of the party’s Minority Morcha, complained to police over the museum’s location in a PMAY-allocated home.