Earlier this week, Thiruvananthapuram police detained two non-local Muslim men named Mohammad Hassan (21) and Shahrukh Ali (30). They ran a shop, Royal Hair Salon, just 100 feet from the famous Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple. On the 6th, ANI reported that they are Rampur, Uttar Pradesh (UP) natives and are being interrogated by military intelligence and central agencies. ANI also tweeted that Hassan was arrested under the IT Act for tampering with a customer’s cell phone.

On Sep 3rd, local wayside tender coconut seller Sreekumar took his grandson to the Royal saloon for a haircut. Hassan, the ‘barber,’ asked the grandfather to borrow his phone. An unsuspecting Sreedharan foolishly handed over his device. It was not a smartphone and did not have social media apps like WhatsApp. 

Hassan returned it, and Sreedharan received a call. While speaking on the phone, Hassan asked Sreedharan for an OTP number that had come to his phone, and the unassuming Sreedharan told it without thinking twice. Sreedharan even received a message that he was logged into Whatsapp but claimed that he was unaware of such matters!

The next day, Sreedharan informed his friend about the suspicious incident. His friend checked and found that Sreedharan’s number was on WhatsApp and had profile images of Pakistani military personnel. Hassan had used Sreedharan’s phone number and logged into WhatsApp from his phone. 

Sreedharan and some locals caught Hassan, and when they checked his phone found pictures of Pakistani army men in battle fatigues traveling in military convoys. There were some messages too, which were in Urdu. The victim complained to the police, who took Hassan and Ali into custody. 

Before they reached the police station, the accused reportedly deleted all their Whatsapp messages. Later reports suggested they were messages urging jihad, asking those who received the messages to help such enemies if they wanted to earn Dua (blessing). 

Had Sreedharan not shown the presence of mind (even though a bit late), this matter would have remained unknown, and jihadis like Hassan would have remained under the radar. Royal Salon is located in one of the Padmanabha Swamy Temple-owned buildings bordering the Temple grounds. The temple is the wealthiest in the world, and the area is a ‘high-security’ zone. 

How did Islamists rent a shop and work close to the temple? This shop is leased out to a local who sublet it to Ali. Local news reports alleged a deep controversy over the transfer of shops in the locality. Hassan arrived in Kerala in June this year. 

Hassan allegedly transfers and receives money from numbers beginning with +92, the country code of Pakistan. These financial transactions are done under the cloak of gambling.

Even after the arrests, reporters who visited the shop found a register of visitors and many phone numbers.

Hindu organizations alleged that Kerala police delayed intimating the central agencies about the arrests.

The primary motive is not financial gains. Royal Saloon is gathering information and phone numbers. Raids on illegal telephone exchanges have hurt the money laundering business. Boycotting non-Hindu shops near temples will not resolve the economic jihad. These establishments have a solid financial backup from enemy countries. 

Like in many industries, Keralites usually do not work in barber shops. Earlier it was Tamilians, but now the whole industry is controlled by the so-called ‘Bhais’ from north Bharat. Interestingly, Keralites do not have issues while working blue-collar jobs in gulf countries.

Not a single local media network picked up this grave issue involving terrorism.  

Rohingyas With Voter Cards

Just days before the 2021 assembly elections in Kerala, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala released a list of over 4 lakh bogus voters, alleging massive discrepancies in the voters’ list. There were allegations that 20 lakh Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims in Kerala have ration cards and voter ID cards, and these voters will decide the fate of over three crore Keralites.

Chennithala approached the high court alleging bogus names in the voters’ list but failed to make any remark about Bangladeshi/ Rohingyan voters in his complaint to the election commission or HC. The election commission told the high court that it could identify only over 38,000 fake voters!

India Today did an elaborate ‘fact check’ and found that these illegal Islamists had been staying in Bharat before 1991! The BJP at the center did not help when Nityanand Rai from the home ministry said his government does not have accurate data regarding such immigrants. Nityanand added that his department did not receive any complaints from the Kerala government about an increased presence of illegal immigrants in Kerala. 

Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League are political partners, and they are the ones who initially encouraged such illegal Islamists to settle in Kerala. Recently, the terrorist organization, the Popular Front of India (PFI), has taken over that role. PFI’s political wing, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), never participated in polls, but the election results showed they had helped the communists. Elections happened, the communists retained power, and all parties soon forgot the Rohingyan controversy. 

Rohingya Route into Kerala

Rohingyas from Bangladesh and Myanmar reach Kolkata, where they procure the school certificate, establishing their Bharatiya origin. The next stop is Hyderabad, where corrupt government officers issue residence certificates. This residence certificate allows these Rohingyas to acquire voter ID, Aadhaar card, and Bharatiya passport. Their final destination is soft-state Kerala. 

These reports are from late 2018, and the Kerala police claimed that Kerala was just a stopover for moving to Australia and Canada. The election voting list demonstrated that many immigrants have integrated into Kerala society as ‘laborers’ and possess all required Bharatiya paperwork. Rahul R. Nair, the head of the Ernakulam district police, was reportedly monitoring the happenings, but that was it.