A pen drive recovered from the spot of Tuesday’s explosion at the compound of the district headquarters offices in Malappuram, Kerala reportedly contains messages issuing death threats to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and certain Central Ministers. The messages the pen drive contains are in the name of the mysterious outfit, Base Movement, which is believed to be behind the blast.
The threats contained in the pen drive were in the form of captioned pictures, according to reports. It is said that the pen drive also contained pictures of the Indian Parliament and Red Fort. The Base Movement has also claimed responsibility for the blasts that had occurred at Kollam, Kerala on June 15, Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh on April 7 and Mysore, Karnataka on August 1.
The investigators have taken the messages extremely seriously and the Kerala Police and the NIA have intensified their probe into the blast that occurred under a car parked at the Malappuram civil station compound late on Tuesday morning. The police had recovered from the spot a cardboard box superscribed “The Base Movement” which contained the pen drive and some pamphlets.
The Base Movement, allegedly an avatar of the Al-Ummah, has plans to carry out blasts in other places as per the data found on the pen drive, said MR Ajithkumar, Inspector General of Police (Thrissur Range). “The contents of the pen drive indicate that they were planning to carry out some other strikes also,” he said in Malappuram on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the State Assembly on Wednesday that a Special Investigation Team headed by Deputy Superintendent of Police (Narcotic wing) PT Balan would probe the Malappuram blast while the BJP demanded a white paper on the actions taken so far in cases of terrorism in Kerala.
A five-member team of the NIA headed by Dy SP V Abdul Khader visited Malappuram on Wednesday for on-the-spot investigations even as steps were initiated to enhance the security of the facility. A police team from Mysore is expected to visit Malappuram within a couple of days in the context of the similarities between the blasts there and in the Kerala town.
The teams probing the Malappuram and Kollam blasts have come to the conclusion that the method, technology and the explosive substance in the IEDs used in both the blasts were almost identical. “The only notable difference is that nobody had claimed responsibility for the Kollam blast whereas this Base Movement has put forward claim for the latest incident,” said an official.
Both, the pamphlet recovered from the spot and the contents of the pen drive were in the name of Base Movement and both contained pictures of Osama Bin laden. The messages in the pen drive and the pamphlet also had references to the alleged human rights violations in the country including the killing of Mohammad Akhlaq over the beef controversy in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.
The issue of Tuesday’s blast was raised in the Assembly on Wednesday by Malappuram MlA P Ubaidullah of the Muslim league through a notice for an adjournment motion. Ubaidullah said that the explosion was part of a deliberate move to disrupt the atmosphere of peace prevailing in Malappuram district.
Replying to the notice, Chief Minister Pinarayi, who is also in charge of Home Affairs, said that the Government was viewing the matter “very seriously” but Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala countered this claim by pointing out that the State police had not so far been able to nab the culprits behind the blast that occurred in Kollam over four months ago.
Former Union minister O Rajagopal, the lone BJP member in the Assembly, staged walkout in protest against the alleged lack of seriousness on the part of the Government in the issue. Demanding a White Paper on actions taken over incidents of terror strikes so far, State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan said the Malappuram blast was a reminder of the fact that extremist activities in Kerala had grown uncontrollably.