Kozhikode Medical College under the grip of Kerala Taliban

Sowing seeds of hatred on campus
Pioneer News Service | Kozhikode

The growing strength of certain students’ organisations in the Kozhikode Medical College campus and the special meetings organised by such groups have led to a fear psychosis among other students of the college.

The Students’ Islamic Organisation (SIO) was once a prominent Islamic student organisation in the medical college and the growth of certain student organisations affiliated to some Islamic movements is being closely monitored by intelligence agencies, both Central and State.

The presence of professional students from Kerala during the arrest of some youths engaged in anti-national and terrorist activities has resulted in the police and the Intelligence agencies beefing up the surveillance on these campuses. The presence of these organisations and their motivation are closely studied by the intelligence agencies.

Sleuths are of the opinion that the terror groups are now concentrating on professional colleges and Kozhikode Medical College is chosen by them mainly owing to the ground support which some organisations have in the area.

Students of the medical college are alarmed at the presence of such groups. Anil George (name changed), a third year student of the college said, “I have seen several such meetings taking place in the college hostels and the speakers in almost all these meetings were from outside the campus. These meetings are being held in utmost secrecy and this in itself shows that something spooky is taking place in these meetings.”

Several posters have also come up in the campus and most of these are making venom-spitting religious statements. Such posters also try to make fun of other religions and communities. Police sources said that they had come across certain activities in the medical college but these issues had to be handled seriously and secretly. A police source also revealed that there were instructions that they should not speak to the media about the plan of action being followed in the matter.

Police have already confiscated several pamphlets and posters of dubious nature from the college. Intelligence sources say that sleuths are closely monitoring the situation and giving feedback to the concerned organisations.

Students claim that the meetings of these organisations are taking place in the evenings. They suspect that these meetings are meant as the initiation process of something big. Students also said that these groups were creating a division within the campus and were not taking into consideration the fact that the Kozhikode Medical College was a prestigious medical institute in the State.

Students also said that there was a fatwa on girls of a particular community not to interact with students belonging to other communities and not to enter into affairs with male students from other religions and communities.

Dr Jayachandran, a practising pediatrician from Kannur and a former student of the Kozhikode Medical College, was astonished at the development. He said, “I am surprised to hear that such developments are taking place in a medical college. I just don’t want to believe this. May be the times have changed. But I can tell you that such developments can lead to a very dangerous situation in the State. If a medical college could be ground for such works, it could happen anywhere.”

SFI State leaders are also of the opinion that such trends on any campus should not be allowed and has to be nipped in the bud.

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