Internal Security Investigation Team to probe Jihadi Popular Front terrorists

Prof attack: Special team to probe four cases

VR Jayaraj | Kochi – Daily Pioneer

The newly constituted Internal Security Investigation Team (ISIT) of the Kerala Police will look into four cases pertaining to the attack on Prof TJ Joseph by activists of Islamist Popular Front of India. The team, whose main concern is extremism-linked incidents, would start investigations on these cases next week itself.

This is the first time the ISIT is taking up a probe on any case since its formation last month. The four cases the ISIT has taken over are part of the 19 cases registered by the Kerala Police in connection with the attack in which the Islamists cut off the professor’s right hand for preparing a question paper that allegedly blasphemed Prophet Muhammad.

The cases mostly relate to the recovery of suspected Islamist campaign material and anti-national literature in raids from the houses of Popular Front leaders and activists. Sources said that the ISIT was also planning to take over the probe on the case relating to some SIM cards organized through false identity papers.

First among the four cases pertains to the recovery of certain CDs that contained disgusting visuals of execution of decrees of the Sharia courts of Al-Qaeda and Taliban from the house of Popular Front leader Kunjumon at Kunjunnikkara, Aluva off Kochi. The police’s presumption was that the CDs were part of the campaign material of the terror outfits.

The second case related to the recovery of a Malayalam book titled “Islam Suitable for Lower Castes, which was originally published in 1936. It was alleged that the book had contained some chapters which were not there in the original edition. The police had confiscated copies of the book during a raid on Aluva’s Periyar Valley, the Popular Front’s Ernakulam district headquarters.

Another of the four cases pertained to another Malayalam book titled “Islam and Democracy” which allegedly contained several anti-national references. The police had recovered copies of the book in a raid on the house of Popular Front’s Noushad. The police’s conclusion was that the book was translated into Malayalam by none other than Sarfaraz Nawaz, LeT’s fund-raiser and key accused in the 2008 Bangalore bombings case.

The ISIT is also planning to take over the probe into the usage of mobile SIM cards availed by furnishing forged identity papers in the communications among the Islamists behind the attack on the professor. The case pertaining to this is registered at the Oonnukal police station in Kothamangalam.

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