On October 25, the Goalpara district administration sealed the privately owned Miya Museum at Dapkarbhita in the Lakhipur area of lower Assam.

In connection with the matter, Mohar Ali of Goalpara and Abdul Baten of Dhubri have both been detained. Further investigation and interrogation would be conducted regarding their affiliation with the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT)/Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.

The action was initiated in response to BJP legislators’ requests to the state government to demolish the museum representing the migrant Muslims’ culture in the area.

The government’s response came after Mohar Ali, who received a house as part of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, a central government’s housing programme, decided to turn his home into a museum.

Justifying the administration’s measures, Rajiv Gogoi, Circle Officer, Lakhipur Circle, Goalpara, said that the person who was allocated the house by the government did not use to stay there and instead used the house for the Miya museum.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, promised to take action against the Miya Museum in the state. The CM also assured that a probe will be done to investigate the funds used to set up the museum. 

He added that the investigation will also cover those responsible for setting up the museum.

He further stated that action will be taken if Miya museum management doesn’t give satisfactory answers to the officials.

On October 23, the private Miya Museum was inaugurated and represents the culture of the Muslims of Bengali descent who had settled in Assam from the late 1890s.