Author: Rajeev P.I.
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 16, 2005
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=66573
NDF, suspected in the recent killing
of RSS man in Kannur, is seen as an advocacy group of 'progressive liberals'
with funding from West Asia
The National Democratic Front (NDF),
suspected behind the killing of an RSS leader in Kannur about a week ago,
is a gradual phenomenon among Kerala's extremist outfits. The front has
figured in a string of communal and political killings over the past few
years yet passes off as an advocacy group of progressive liberals. And,
the leadership does not deny that a chunk of its 30,000-strong cadre has
infiltrated almost all political parties, trade unions - even some NGOs
- in Kerala.
The front was born in 1993, out
of the post-Babri outrage. It was one of the many radical outfits that
benefited from the Muslim League's crisis as it stood by the Congress,
which was blamed for allowing the demolition.
The outfit claims to survive on
a flexible and voluntary membership fee, but owns real estate worth crores
in Kozhikode, Malappuram, Wayanad - some of it benami. Sources say a bulk
of its money pours in from West Asia, which its top leaders frequent. It
has a well defined chain of command - from tiny village units to sub-divisional
units, divisional units and regional councils, with an executive state
secretariat, a state council and the supreme council at the top.
The visible soft face of the NDF
is its 11-member supreme council - a collection of professors, lawyers,
religious scholars and others. A doctor in Malappuram heads its women's
wing.
Police and Intelligence sources
say the NDF also has its trained hit squad called the Habbabil, and a religious
policing arm. ''It's tough to get to their middle and lower level leadership,
which oversee the actual criminal part of their operations. They are into
almost all political parties and other organisations, including the CPI(M).
They don't wear the NDF identity on their sleeves,'' says a senior officer
with the state police intelligence.
The only political party that has
openly admitted to being infiltrated by NDF ranks is the Muslim League.
Its state committee declared three years ago that it would expel all NDF
elements and deny entry to any more. No NDF man, however, has been dismissed
yet. Besides, sources say a chunk of the middle-level leadership of the
party's youth outfit are NDF men, while intelligence officials say the
breakaway Indian National League led by Ibrahim Sulaiman Sait has been
virtually taken over by them.
The NDF, however, claims it is being
demonized by the media, the police and successive governments. ''The RSS
man's killing in Kannur the other day was only a retaliation,'' said Nazaruddeen
Elamaram, spokesman of NDF's supreme council. He claims in some cases,
like the murder of a CPI(M) worker a few days ago, NDF ranks were ''misused''
by others. As for his men infiltrating political parties, Nazaruddeen insists
it points to the ''liberal approach'' of the NDF, committed ''only to protecting
minority and Dalit interests and rights''. The outfit, however, has been
linked to several killings. Among them:
* The killing of CPI(M) activist
Binu in Nadapuram, alleged to have molested a Muslim woman during the CPI(M)-Muslim
League skirmishes there
* Murder of Sugesh, a DYFI worker
in Thalassery * Uppappa alias Siddhan, a fakir in Malappuram, killed for
preaching ''un-Islamic spiritualism''
* Killing of CPI(M)'s Ashraf in
Punalur * Murder of BJP worker Mani in Chavakkad three months ago
* The biggest NDF strike, however,
has been in Marad, where eight Hindu fisherfolk were killed in May 2003.
