Kerala - Kozhikode   

Hindutva groups under the scanner

Kozhikode: The Special Purpose Cell (SPC), a newly constituted wing under the Special Branch of the State police, is closely monitoring the activities of several Hindutva outfits and their offshoots with evidence emerging on the role of Hindu militant groups in several bomb blasts including the Malegaon incident in Maharashtra.

Reliable sources told The Hindu here on Thursday that officers had been entrusted with the task of keeping tabs on recently formed Hindutva outfits, particularly in the coastal belts of north Kerala and Wayanad district.

Many of the leaders of these organisations are suspected to have been maintaining links to organisations that have parted ways with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its feeder organisations.

Besides, organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Hindu Aikya Vedi, and the Bajrang Dal and several of their sub-divisions have now been put under the scanner, sources said.

Less than a fortnight ago, senior officers took stock of the situation following the involvement of Hindutva terror group Abhinav Bharat in some of the mysterious blast cases that rocked several parts of the country.

As of now, no organisation with the name has come to the notice of intelligence officers here, sources said.

However, a senior officer said that a few months ago a Gujarat-based Hindutva organisation had provided funds as initial expenditure to a close-knit group to form a unit in Malappuram district. However, the scheme fizzed out since members of the group backed out of the project after spending the amount for their personal needs, he said.

The emergence of these Hindutva outfits in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts, officials believe, is because of the growth of Islamist organisations. Tirur and Kottakkal in Malappuram district have now become a breeding ground of both Hindutva and Muslim fundamentalist outfits.

The SPC has been divided into three categories; each looking after specialised areas such as operation of communal organisations, extremists’ outfits and organised crime. It has been formed for surveillance and to tackle the threat of the organisations that attempt to foment trouble in the State.

Officials said the Bajrang Dal launching units at some of the grama panchayats in Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad districts is equally disturbing.

However, only a few are active now because of lack of manpower and money support. A majority of the units are lying dormant. What has baffled the officers is the surfacing of Shiv Sena, purportedly another hardcore Hindutva organisation, in north Kerala.

Sources said many of the organisations based in Wayanad district are functioning among tribal settlements. They have been registered under various charitable organisations and doing generous work among the Adivasi population.

But the intensified activity of Hindutva organisations in the region is a fresh development considering the fact that mountainous forests of the district have been used by Muslim outfits and Maoists groups for training purposes.

One of these Hindutva groups, like elsewhere in the State, has launched a campaign against alleged conversion activities taking place in Adivasi belts.

They have been motivated by attacks carried out by Hindu militant groups on Christians and their institutions in Kandhamal and other areas in Orissa, sources said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Painting exhibition
Drive to conserve local breeds
All set for Army mela
LPG distributors clarify
Flights to Ras-al-Khaimah
Ration dealers’ protest
IUML to hold ‘padayatras’
Four persons injured in IUML-CPI(M) clashes
Boy injured after coconut falls on head
Taxi drivers stage protest
Hindutva groups under the scanner

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu