Author: PNS
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 8, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/168130/Kodiyeri-admits-to-LeT-recruitment-in-Kerala.html
Kerala Home Minister and CPI(M) Politburo
member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Tuesday admitted that there were evidences
of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba recruiting people from Kerala. However, he said there
was no proof of any organisation in Kerala associating with LeT in the recruitment
process though there was information that certain people had been working
for that outfit.
Talking to newspersons at the Press Club here
on Tuesday, Kodiyeri said that the Government did not get any evidences to
suggest that Islamist organisation NDF (presently Popular Front of India)
was a recruiting agency working in Kerala for terror outfits. He also said
the police had no information on whether the NDF was engaged in any terrorist
activities in the State.
The Home Minister said that there were cases
against several NDF activists on charges including murder and attempt to murder
but the police had got no information about its being a terror recruiter.
The special wing concerned with terror case investigations was keeping a close
watch on the activities of the Popular Front, he said.
Kodiyeri said this while responding to questions
regarding CPI (M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan's statement that NDF was
a recruiting agent for extremist organisations. Kodiyeri said Pinarayi must
have said this on the basis of "political information". Political
parties might be getting such information and there was nothing wrong in making
such statements, but as far as the Government was concerned, there was no
proof to agree with Pinarayi's allegation.
At the same time, Kodiyeri termed wrong the
allegation made by PDP chairman Abdul Nasser Madani that the statement of
the accused against Sufiya Madani in the bus-burning case was not natural
but the police had forced him to say so by torturing him. Majeed Parampayi,
fifth accused in the case of burning a Tamil Nadu bus at Kalamassery in 2005,
had told the police that Madani's wife Sufiya had planned and funded the operation.
The NDF had the other day declared electoral
support for the Congress-led UDF in 18 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala
for the 15th Lok Sabha poll, irking the CPI (M) State secretary who since
then had been raising allegations against that organisation while justifying
his own party's electoral agreement with the PDP of Abdul Nasser Madani, who
was alleged to have connections with LeT and other terror outfits.
The Popular Front and PDP had come under the
scanner of the special Anti-Terror Squad of the Kerala Police after four Malayalee
militants were killed in Kashmir by security forces in October last. Immediately
after this, a former NDF activist Abdul Jaleel was arrested in Kannur after
it was established that he had been in contact with these militants over telephone.
This arrest had led to several other arrests
and the revelation of deeply entrenched LeT and Indian Mujahiddeen network
in Kerala. The NDF admitted that Jaleel had once been a member of the outfit
but had no connections with it for a long time now. However, several of those
arrested after that had deposed to the ATS personnel that they had connections
with Madani.
However, the Home Minister had held that there
was no reason to launch a probe against Madani as the allegations against
him were old though Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan made clear that the investigations
against Madani would go on.
