The Kerala Police have intensified a special probe into the alleged role of Islamic extremist organisations in the ‘undeclared’ shutdown held on Monday to protest the Kathua incident during which widespread violence was witnessed in the State, especially in the northern Malabar region, even as allegations came up about a deliberate move by fundamentalists to terrorise Hindus in areas where they are in minority.
The probe is being held jointly by the police and its Intelligence wing as per the instructions issued by Director General of Police loknath Behera who has constituted a special team for the purpose. The misuse of social media in what is being described now as ‘WhatsApp hartal’ is also being examined.
Special attention is being given in the probe to the misuse of social media for spreading violence during the shutdown. The police have already collected details of the WhatsApp groups that had propagated the hartal message. According to sources, the main force behind the hartal was the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), political wing of Islamist Popular Front of India (PFI).
Most of those arrested so far in connection with the violent incidents during the hartal are SDPI activists. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has reportedly submitted a report to the Centre citing the role of the SDPI in the hartal. The IB has concluded that there had been attempts to create communal problems during the shutdown. The SDPI leadership has rejected the charges.
The police had till Tuesday evening detained over 500 persons from Malappuram, Kannur, Kozhikode, Kasaragod and Palakkad districts for unleashing violence and for attacking the law-enforcers and about 100 of them were remanded in judicial custody. The police had taken 80 pro-hartal activists into preventive custody.
Tanur, Tirur and Parappanangadi in Muslim-majority Malappuram district, which have been brought under prohibitory orders for one week following Monday’s widespread violent incidents including attacks on shops and vehicles, remained calm on Tuesday. Police personnel have been deployed in large numbers in areas hit by violence.
The Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samithi (Coordination Committee of Traders and Industrialists), the largest traders’ association in the State, observed a hartal in Tanur on Tuesday to protest against the attacks on shops and looting during the hartal on Monday. Traders demanded compensation from the Government for the losses they suffered in the violence.
Stating that his party would bring the matter to the Centre’s attention, State BJP president Kummanam Rajasekharan said, “Who had provided these extremist elements with the funds needed for this hartalIJ Who had sent them to the streetsIJ Who had given them the inspiration for these attacksIJ”
Alleging that the Kerala Police took no action to prevent the incidents even when there were Intelligence reports about the possibility of violence during the hartal, Kummanam demanded that a special investigation team should probe Monday’s incidents. He also alleged that the shutdown was held with the intention of creating communal tension.
The Hindu Aikya Vedi, which had given a call to observe Tuesday as State-wide protest day over Monday’s incidents, alleged that the shutdown was part of a carefully prepared plan to unleash violence against innocent Hindus. The outfit also alleged that the protestors had enjoyed the support of the ruling CPI(M).
Hindu outfits also complained that the protestors had specifically targeted shops and other establishments of Hindus in Tanur in Malappuram. “The attacks during the shutdown seem to have been part of a conspiracy to terrorize the majority community in Muslim-dominated areas,” said an Aikya Vedi leader.
In Malappuram district which saw the most serious incidents of violence in the hartal, the police have detained over 130 persons in more than 60 cases. Though several of them were later released on bail, 15 of them were remanded in judicial custody. The police have also taken into custody many of the vehicles the trouble-makers had used on the hartal day.
The Kannur police detained 169 persons in 36 cases related to the violence on the hartal day in various parts of the district and 50 of them have been remanded in judicial custody. The police continued searches throughout Tuesday for the trouble-makers who had clashed with the law-enforces at the Town Police Station in Kannur.