Team Clarion
NEW DLEHI — Mahbubul Hoque, founder of University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya, and a veteran social worker was arrested by the Assam police on Friday, over the allegation of irregularities in school exams.
Hoque, who is also the head of the Education and Research Development (ERD), was arrested from Gauhati following a series of attacks launched by Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Hoque’s arrest has stirred widespread condemnation and criticism.
Student group Student Islamic Organisation of India (SIO) on Monday condemned calling the arrest as “violation of justice”.
“This is nothing but a sinister attempt by the BJP led Assam government to crush minority-led institutions and silence those empowering the marginalised,” said SIO in a statement.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma’s administration has made it a habit to demonise Muslim institutions, weaponising state power to push its divisive agenda. First, they peddled lies about “fake degrees” and “flood jihad.” The message is clear: they do not want Muslims to rise,” the student group asserted.
The group expressed solidarity with Haque and demanded the release of the educationist.
“SIO stands firmly with Mahbubul Hoque and the students of USTM. We demand his immediate release and an end to this targeted harassment. We will not allow Assam to be turned into a battleground for communal politics. The fight for education, justice, and dignity will continue,” it said.
The police alleged that some students were assured by the USTM that they can pass their exams easily there.
But ERD Foundation principal secretary Mehjabeen Rahman said, “Essentially, we have been accused of not giving students an opportunity to cheat in examinations.”
“These were allegations made by a handful of students, and you will find a few students like this everywhere. They did not do as well in their physics exam as they would have hoped and they maybe they must have wanted to use unfair means, which the invigilators did not allow. When we first saw the videos, we were taken aback by what they were saying,” she said.
The ERD Foundation was founded by Hoque, a Muslim of Bengali origin from Assam’s Sribhumi district in the Barak Valley. The foundation’s flagship institute is the USTM, of which Hoque is also the Chancellor. It also runs a number of other institutes, including two schools in Patharkandi and Badarpur, both in Sribhumi, founded in 2008 and 2010, respectively.
In August 2024, claiming ‘flood jihad’, Sarma had targeted Haque’s university pinning the blame of flash floods in Guwahati on construction work in USTM, located in Meghalaya’s Ri-Bhoi district, stating that deforestation and hill-cutting for the campus were responsible.
Former president of Aligarh Muslim Univeristy’s student union Mashkoor Usmani also condemned Hoque’s arrest calling it “targeted attacks”.
“I strongly condemn the midnight arrest of renowned educationist and Chancellor of @USTMeghalaya, Shri Mahbubul Hoque, by Assam Police at the behest of CM @himantabiswa. This arrest is the culmination of months of targeted attacks by the Assam CM, driven by his vested interests,” stated Usmani
“Why is the Assam CM making this a personal and political vendetta? Why is he attempting to undermine and dismantle a premier NAAC-A Grade institution like USTM, which operates under the jurisdiction of the Government of Meghalaya and is governed by the academic regulations of @ugc_india?,” he asked.
