USTM was started with money from organisation linked with Al Qaeda: Assam CM Himanta Sarma

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday alleged that privately-owned University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM) was started with money that came from an organisation connected with terror outfit Al Qaeda.

He urged the Sanatani people of Assam not to enroll in that varsity, located near Guwahati, and "stop patronising it".

"I have been saying for long that USTM is a place of fraud. Now, when this woman has been arrested, her details have been deleted from the university's website," Sarma said, when asked for his reaction to Delhi Police apprehending a Guwahati woman while driving in a vehicle using forged diplomatic registration plates.

The arrested woman was purportedly associated with USTM, but the link with the details has been deleted from the varsity's website.

Sarma, who had earlier held USTM and its chancellor Mahbabul Hoque responsible for "flood jihad" against Guwahati, asked the people of Assam to refrain from "supporting" the institution and its proprietor.

He claimed that the money with which Haque had founded USTM had come from an organisation with connections to Al Qaeda.

"We have complete information on it. That's why I have been saying that we should stop patronising USTM," the chief minister said.

"I request people of Assam's Sanatani society to not study in USTM. The certificates given by it could become irrelevant," he added.

Sarma also mentioned of allegations against Haque of forging his OBC certificate and being arrested multiple times after a series of cases were registered across the state over the controversy related to promising students to allow unfair means in exams.