Author: C I Issac
Publication: Vijayvaani.com
Date: January 1, 2010
URL: http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1016
Recent newspaper reports on Islamic fundamentalists' operations from Kerala
under the camouflaged stewardship of Abdul Nasser Madhani, accused in the
Coimbatore Bomb Blast case, and the ruling and opposition coalition's hide
and seek game in dealing with terrorists, reveals more obscurity than clarity.
The question of Islamic terrorism was widely
discussed since the 1980s, but the decision-makers did not take the progressively
burgeoning menace of terrorism in Kerala in its true perspective. The result
was that the terrorist outfits of Kerala acquired an international character
by establishing relations with Mumbai terror suspect David Coleman Headley,
since then in the custody of the FBI in Chicago.
There are various reasons behind the laxity
of political coalitions of Kerala towards terrorists. The first is the petro-money
from Arab courtiers reaching Islamic terrorist groups through legitimate and
hawala channels. With this money terrorists are able to effectively silence
the corrupt and greedy political leaderships of both coalitions of the State.
The second reason is the minority votebanks. The third is the absence of Hindutva-consciousness
amongst the Hindus, which complements the birth of minority votebanks.
Until the BSF arrested Thadiyantavide Nazeer,
a disciple of Madhani, from the Bangladesh border, the true picture of Islamic
terrorist operations in Kerala was not seriously debated in socio-political
circles. Similarly the extent of political patronage enjoyed by Islamic terrorists
from the ruling and opposition parties was not seriously debated. However,
by divine assistance, the opportunity to interrogate Nazeer first went to
the Karnataka police. That is why the real picture of the state of art Islamic
Terrorism in Kerala came into the open.
The response of the Kerala Home Ministry in
this regard justifies this contention. Apparently, in the political scenario
of the State several shameful developments took place in the light of Nazeer's
arrest. The Home Ministry in particular, and the ruling and opposition parties,
blatantly strove to whitewash various Islamic fundamentalist organizations
that supported them in elections.
The Home Ministry deputed the most tainted
police officer to interrogate Nazeer to Bangalore, overlooking officers in-charge
of the investigation of terrorist cases in Kerala. This most favoured police
officer is still facing a vigilance enquiry for allegations of smuggling of
electronic equipments, amassing excess wealth, etc. The said officer, IG Tomin
J. Thachankary, has been portrayed in the media as one: "who is believed
to be having close links with CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, was also
said to be a technical advisor at the time of the setting up of the Kairali
TV Channel [CPM venture]. He was suspended from service in July 2007 after
the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau filed FIR against him. As per the
FIR he had amassed about Rs. 90 lakh beyond his known sources of income. While
being reinstated in service earlier this year, the Chief Minister had specially
cautioned that he should not be given key postings" [Arun Raghunath,
ENS, Thiruvanthapuram, The New Indian Express, Kochi, 10 Dec. 2009].
By overlooking the Chief Minister's warning
that the government "should not give key postings" to the officer,
Home Ministry's enthusiasm to depute the tainted IG to interrogate Nazeer
in Bangalore suggests the political patronage enjoyed by Islamic terrorist
groups of Kerala.
In December 2006, the anti-piracy cell of
Kerala police raided his wife Anita's digital studio [Riyan Studio] at Kochi,
and recovered sacks of pirated CDs. The destiny of the case is shrouded in
obscurity and thus left to the discretion of an astrologer. In 2002, his gunman
was arrested from Cochin International Airport with costly electronic equipment.
The fate of this case not much different from the earlier ones. No doubt this
IG is the most appropriate person in Kerala Police to keep the reciprocal
obligations of the CPM to all terrorist outfits in Kerala.
As rumours of Sufia's arrest spread across
the State, Abdul Nasser Madhani summoned a press conference and threatened
the State Government. He warned that the arrest of his wife in connection
with the torching of a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus at Cochin
in 2005 would have dire consequences.
Nazeer's new disclosures before the Karnataka
Police put the CPM on the defensive. The case registered for hijacking and
torching of a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus from NH 47 near Cochin
during the night of 1 September 2005, to demand Madhani's release from Coimbatore
jail, was put in the mortuary until Nazeer's arrest. But the information from
the Karnataka Police forced the Kerala Home Ministry to arrest the chief culprit,
Sufia Madhani, wife of Abdul Nasser Madhani.
But the arrest and interrogation of Sufia
ended in melodrama. Immediately after her arrest she was produced before the
court and remanded to judicial custody. She was stationed in the sub-jail
of Ernakulum, and very soon shifted to an air-conditioned ward in a Medical
College for a minor ailment. She got VIP treatment, a testimony to Kerala
government's timidity towards terrorists and terrorism. When her bail application
came before the designated court, the prosecution paved the way for a walkover
for the accused. While granting bail to Sufia, the designated court observed:
"The High Court, while dismissing the petitioner's anticipatory bail
application, had said that custodial interrogation was required. But the prosecution
has not sought police custody of the petitioner so far" [The New Indian
Express, Kochi, 24 Dec. 2009].
The unholy association of Madhani and Pinarayi
Vijayan group of CPM is behind the fake show of arrest and bailout of Sufia.
Now the Home Minister symbolizes the interests of Jihadi Islam. Nazeer, the
mastermind behind the Bangalore explosions, now in the custody of the Karnataka
Police, experimented with the 'cult of the bomb' near an Idgah of Kannur town
in 2002, in reaction to the granting of permission for namaaz to women in
the Idgah. Immediately the Kerala police nabbed him. Due to political pressure,
he was released from police custody and the case put in the mortuary. Thereafter
he became the mastermind of all subsequent bomb blasts in South India. If
the spineless political class of Kerala gives a freehand to the Police, further
bomb blasts can be avoided.
Yet the ruling and opposition parties are
fiddling for the Pan-Islamic phenomena of love jihad. No political party other
than BJP had shown courage to censure the vulgar Islamic proselytism enterprise
of love jihad. Islamic organizations like Muslim Youth Front, Popular Front,
Campus Front, Smart Front and Muslim women's groups like Tasrin Millath, Shahal
Falls, etc are openly participating in love jihad. These organizations are
providing financial and material support to Muslim youngsters to trap Hindu
and Christian girls of teen ages, who are studying in professional education
institutions, and convert them to Islam under the guise of love.
This jihad was started in 1996 and still continues
[Syed Muhammed, Janmabhoomi Daily, Kottayam, 27 Dec. 2009]. The jihad acquired
a wide spectrum and speed, and from 2006 to the present, more than 4000 Hindu-Christian
girls have fallen in to the trap. Due to money and political pressure, the
police have not properly investigated parental complaints [Janmabhoomi Daily,
Kottayam, 18 Sept. 2009]
Most girls, their life spoiled, seek solace
in suicide. Though the majority of the ill-fated are hailing are Hindus, until
the Christian community reacted to love jihad, the matter was not widely debated
in the media and society. Now the non-communist intellectual circles are raising
doubts about proselytism under the guise of love jihad. The CPM and Islamic
fundamentalist organizations claimed this was RSS propaganda until the Christians
spoke out.
CPM leader and national president of DYFI,
P. Sreeramakrishnan, alleged that the motive behind the talk of love jihad
was to curtail Indian women's freedom of choice. "They want to establish
that the Hindu women are not capable of making their bold choice in any matter
including love. You cannot describe conversions due to marriage as part of
jihad" [Janmabhoomi, Kottayam, 1 Nov. 2009]. But do Hindu and Christian
boys have the freedom to love Muslim girls, without conversion? In Islam,
love is one-way-traffic, given the divine command of total conversion of the
world through annihilation of kafirs. The DYFI leader lives in a fool's paradise.
Christian parents brought the matter before
the apex court, and the Hon. High Court of Kerala intervened in the cultural-extermination
agenda of Islamic Jihadists. Justice KT Sankaran directed the Kerala government
to take appropriate step to curb the unethical practice of proselytism under
the guise of love jihad on 9 Dec. 2009. The court asked the government to
consider enacting a law to prohibit such deceptive acts of forceful religious
conversions under the garb of love: "Under the pretext of love, there
cannot be any compulsive, deceptive conversion".
The court arrived at this conclusion after
examining the case diaries of the various investigative agencies [The Economic
Times, 10 Dec. 09]. The fundamentalist Islamic bodies prayed for the prohibition
of the term love jihad by the press before the apex court, but the court clarified
that the term had appeared in the police report and it would not restrain
the media from using it [The New Indian Express, 10 Dec. 09]
Further, the National Investigative Agency
under the Union Home Ministry intervened in the investigation of all terrorist
actions of Kerala on the ground that the culprits are the same in almost all
bomb blasts of South India in the recent past. As a result, NIA has decided
to re-investigate the torching of the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation
bus at Cochin in 2005, which case was suppressed by the CPM-led government
to appease the Muslim votebank.
This irked Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan,
who openly challenged NIA's authority to investigate terrorist cases prior
to the 2009 constitution of NIA. He is now ready for a legal battle on the
issue [The New Indian Express & Janmabhoomi, 28 Dec. 2009]. Yet the Union
Home Secretary has clarified that, "The NIA can take up any case. Nothing
can prevent the agency from investigating a case registered before 2009"
[The New Indian Express, Kochi, 29 Dec. 2009]. No doubt Kodiyeri is yelling
to save the face of his party and the tainted image of the Madhani-Sufia couple.
The State Home Ministry under the stewardship
of Kodiyeri Balakrishnan is over enthusiastic about protecting all anti-national
enterprises in Kerala, including jihad. After the constitution of NIA, the
home department is very cautious and hypocritical while charging cases relating
to Islamic terrorism in Kerala, in order to save the face of some closely
associated with the party. Thus, in the 13 July 2009 LeT-sponsored bomb blast
in the civil station at Ernakulum, police registered a case not under sections
of the Unlawful Acts or Prevention of Terrorism Acts, in order to avoid NIA's
interference [Mangalam Daily, 29 Dec. 2009]. The paradox is that Nazeer confessed
before the Karnataka Police his direct involvement in this blast. This is
the tragic state of affairs of Kerala Police!
To the Kerala CPM, jihadi activities are 'milch
cows'. Several CPM leaders are billionaires through 'milking' this cow. Some
decades ago they were penurious and ideological Marxists. Now everything has
changed and they are leading a palatial life. What is the source of their
accumulated wealth/income? Is there any competent authority in India which
can unearth the source of income of these Marxist-Capitalists? How truly can
Kerala bear the epithet "God's Own Country"?
- The author is a retired Professor of History,
and lives in Trivandrum