Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Extremist elements in the guise of rights activists

Thiruvananthapuram: Senior police officers say Kerala has several security concerns though the possibility of a terrorist strike in its territory is currently remote.

The Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), which is banned by the Central government under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1958, is believed to be operating under the cover of at least 12 organisations in Kerala. SIMI organisers periodically change the name of their front organisations to shake off police surveillance.

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan recently said that certain extremist outfits used human rights organisations as their fronts.

Intelligence officials believe that SIMI activists in Kerala had developed links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2006. They say that SIMI activists are operating under the cover of religious study centres, rural development and research centres and institutions for developing “personal effectiveness.” Some of these organisations were spreading “extremist religious ideals” among a section of impressionable youth by acting as “counselling and guidance centres working for behavioural change”.

In the past 10 years, the police have registered 17 cases against suspected SIMI activists.

The covert activities of SIMI in Kerala received a boost after 25 of its key organisers held a secret meeting at Chinthavilappu in Kozhikode in 2005, officials say.

At SIMI’s invitation, a religious scholar from Minicoy in Lakshadweep gave discourses with strong fundamentalist messages in Malappuram in 2006. Intelligence officials believe that SIMI has a secret women’s wing with over 335 members in Kerala.

The names of at least two persons from Kerala have been linked with terrorist activities. The Gujarat police had shot dead Pranesh Kumar from Aluppuzha district, who later took the name of Javed Gulam Muhammad Shiekh, after accusing him of being part of a terrorist plot to kill Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The Maharashtra police had named the “elusive” former State president of SIMI C.A.M. Basheer from Aluva as one of the architects of the 2003 Mumbai serial blasts.

Official sources say that the southern commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba had stayed for some time in Malappuram in 2003 before he was shot dead in an alleged encounter by the Mumbai police in March the same year. The police consider Kondotty in Malappuram as one of the centres of SIMI activity.

Suspected SIMI activity in Malappuram had resulted in clashes between Hindu right wing activists and religious fundamentalist outfits in the communally sensitive Tirur coastal area in Malappuram in 2007.

The police responded by launching “Operation June,” which resulted in the arrest of 764 persons, including suspected members of the shadowy sword wielding “hit teams” of fundamentalist outfits in Malappuram. A senior official says religious fundamentalist activity is a threat to Kerala’s secular society.

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