The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Kerala arms itself against extremists

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Monday, Jan 21, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Kerala arms itself against extremists

G. Anand

Police keep a close watch on migrant labourers; conducting a random study

Intelligence officials suspect some labourers claiming to be from West Bengal are Bangladeshis

Presence of Maoists among migrant labourers
“is less than one per cent”

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The arrest of a top Maoist leader Malla Raja Reddy in Kochi last December and of a suspected Hizbul Mujahideen-trained Kashmiri handicrafts salesman Althaf Muhammad Khan in Idukki in January has raised public concern about the possibility of other State militants seeking refuge in Kerala and the risks such elements could pose to its society.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had recently said that Left extremist groups were attempting to create problems in Kerala.

Khan’s arrest has prompted the police to conduct a “100 per cent verification” of Kashmiris living in Kerala, a majority of them involved in the handicrafts business.

The police believe that Reddy has sought refuge for sometime among migrant labourers from Andhra Pradesh.

There are an estimated 10 lakh migrant labourers in Kerala, most of them poor people from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and insurgency-affected North- Eastern States.

The State special branch police are conducting a random study to find out whether people claiming to be migrant labourers from these States are actually from their presumed home districts. Intelligence officials suspect that a section of migrant labourers claiming to be from West Bengal are from Bangladesh.

There is also a security angle to the exercise since anti-India terrorist organisations such as the Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami Bangladesh (Huji-BD) and a few insurgent outfits operating in North-Eastern India are known to have secret bases in Bangladesh. Several other States are battling Left extremists in their own territories.

A top police official told The Hindu that his department is operating under the premise that “Kerala at some future date could become susceptible to terrorism.” He says “an odd” Naxalite or Islamic terrorist fleeing the law in other States can seek refuge in Kerala.

It is possible that they merge with the local population, lead a normal life here to maintain their cover and then return to their original area of operation to continue their illegal activities.

He says the presence of Maoist sympathisers among migrant labourers in Kerala “is less than one per cent” and the chance of a wanted extremist hiding among their midst is “about one in ten thousand.”

Police officials say there is scarce evidence of Maoists or Islamic terrorists converting large number of Keralites to their extremist causes. However, such elements which threaten the social and secular fabric of the State have their small pockets of influence in Kerala.

The enactment of the Land Reforms Act, total literacy, the narrowing urban-rural divide, diminishing social inequalities, better road connectivity, evenly spreading communication facilities and decentralisation of power are effective bulwarks against the spread of extremist ideologies in Kerala, they say.

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