Indian National Congress (INC) and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) councilors supported a Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) member arrested by NIA in Erattupetta municipality. SDPI is the political wing of the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI), and Erattupetta is in the Kottayam district. The municipality is ruled by the United Democratic Front (UDF), an alliance of political parties led by Congress.
All but one member of the UDF supported Ansary E P, who was arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA) officers in late September last year for alleged terrorist links. Ansary then applied for leave from the municipal council. UDF councilors backed a resolution that the terror suspect be granted 6 months’ leave.
SDPI member Naufia Ismayil presented the issue of granting leave with retrospective effect from September. PM Abdul Khader, a senior member of the IUML, supported it. Nine Left Democratic Front (LDF) members in the 28-member council dissented. LDF consists of the communists (CPM/CPI) and Kerala Congress (Mani) (KCM).
After the matter became controversial, the UDF members tried to justify their actions. They claimed no politics in supporting (the ninth standard passed) councilor Ansary. They added they only recommended that the government and the Election Commission take an appropriate decision regarding the leave application. In a council meeting that transpired a day earlier, LDF members opposed the resolution presented by SDPI seeking leave for Ansary.
Suspiciously, the CPM retained the nearby Pathanamthitta municipal corporation with the support of SDPI councilors. In November, HinduPost reported how CPM and Congress leaders inaugurated a controversial PFI-linked Ayurveda hospital near Pathanamthitta that belonged to Dr. Fousina Thaqbeer, the wife of PFI terrorist Sadiq Ahmed. Interestingly, the green communist leadership in Thiruvananthapuram is allegedly pro-SDPI/PFI.
Officers from the Kochi unit led the NIA raid along with a special team that arrived from Delhi. A group called Pacha Velicham, working within Kerala Police, had a history of allegedly leaking information to the PFI terrorists, and NIA did not use anyone from the force. Instead, armed central security jawans were flown in for the arrests. Those detained were quickly remanded and whisked away to jails in Delhi and Ernakulam.
Subsequently, the NIA submitted an affidavit in the NIA court where they mentioned that the arrested PFI terrorists had helped ISIS. The NIA informed that the accused also conspired to indulge in anti-national activities.
The NIA used several instances as templates for its nationwide campaign against PFI terrorists, including the notorious hand-chopping case of Professor TJ Joseph, in July 2010. PFI terrorists, under the supervision of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board, alleged blasphemy and carried out the Taliban-model assault.
Erattupetta is a terror hub that has contributed to terrorists, not just locally but also on a national level. Last year, computer engineer Shaduli and Shibili, a BTech graduate in electronics and communication, were awarded the death sentence in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case. The siblings were from Erattupetta. The jihadis targeted Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, but they escaped by a whisker.
After the NIA arrests in September, HinduPost reported how Kerala police officers merely watched when around 100 PFI terrorists surrounded the Erattupetta police station. It was the day of the illegal hartal, and they warned the police of severe consequences. PFI leaders openly instigated violence while their cadre cheered and clapped with shouts of Allahu Akbar.
Ordinary Muslims from Erattupetta have to bear the brunt of radical Islam. In July 2009, a pipe bomb exploded on the fifth floor of the Ernakulam District Collectorate. Seven people from a Muslim family (six were from Erattupetta) were taken into custody and released after questioning by the police. It was later found that Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Thadiyantevida Nazeer and Shafas Shamsudheen (both from Kannur) were behind that blast.
Out of the 28 Erattupetta municipality members, there is one Hindu and a Christian. That Hindu won on an IUML ticket since it was a seat reserved for the ‘Scheduled Caste’ community. The rest are all from the so-called minority community.
