New Delhi, July 19 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday accused Kerala’s Left government of being ‘soft’ on those behind the chopping off of a lecturer’s palm and demanded a ban on the Popular Front, a radical Muslim organisation alleged to be involved in the attack.
In its report titled ‘Talibanisation of Kerala’, the BJP alleged that the attack on lecturer T.J. Joseph July 4 was a ‘pre-planned conspiracy with deep-rooted extremist links’. It also demanded that the Kerala government come out with a report on terrorist activities in Kerala.
Last week, the BJP’s four-member fact finding team comprising Haren Pathak, Pinky Anand, Wilfred Mesquita and Balasubramaniam, who were appointed by party chief Nitin Gadkari, visited the state and submitted a report on ‘Talibanisation of Kerala’ to Gadkari.
‘Enough evidence was found to show that the attack was a pre-planned conspiracy with deep-rooted extremist links at the local and international level,’ said the report.
Joseph, a Malayalam teacher at the New Man College at Thodupuzha, was attacked July 4 morning while returning from church. His right palm was chopped off, allegedly by members of the Popular Front, for preparing a question paper reportedly with inflammatory references to Prophet Mohammed.
The report also said the civil community in Kerala is ‘very unhappy and disturbed with its present CPI-M (Communist Party of India- Marxist) government and also the Congress at the centre’.
‘The delegation is of the view that the state government is soft on the attackers and supporters who belong to the Popular Front. The reason is obvious, that despite complaints made by the family of Professor T.J. Joseph, police failed to take any action against the attackers and Popular Front,’ the report said.
The team demanded that Popular Front be declared an unlawful organisation and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) be asked to probe the recent incidents, including the attack on Joseph and other activities of the ‘Taliban model’ in the state.
