India, Dec. 23 -- The Assam unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on December 22 courted controversy after drawing links between madrasa education in the state's riverine char areas and what it described as extremist models in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Speaking at a press conference at the party's state headquarters, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bhawan, BJP state spokesperson Ranjib Kumar Sarmah alleged that some madrasas functioning in Assam's char and chapori regions along the Brahmaputra follow curricula comparable to Qawmi madrasas in Bangladesh and institutions allegedly connected to extremist networks in Pakistan. He claimed such educational models encourage religious radicalism and pose a threat to social cohesion.

Sarmah further asserted th...