Ban NDF’s mockery parade or face mass agitation of Patriots – BJP

Ban NDF parade: BJP

VR Jayaraj | Thiruvananthapuram – Daily Pioneer

The Kerala BJP on Saturday asked the LDF Government to ban all Freedom Parades the Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (formerly NDF) was planning to hold on the Independence Day in various places in the State or to face mass agitation even as Kottayam became the second district to ban the programme.

Talking to newsmen in Thiruvananthapuram, State BJP president V Muraleedharan said that the party would lead the movement of patriots against the Freedom Parades if they were not banned. “The people of Kerala have not come forward to oppose such forces (like the Popular Front) so far. What we tell the people is that they should come forward,” Muraleedharan said.

The Government, which had banned the Freedom Parade in some places, “has given freedom for that in other places,” he said. On Saturday, the ADM, Kottayam, banned the parade in the district. The outfit had planned to hold the parade at Irattupetta on August 15. The authorities had the other day issued order banning the Freedom Parade in Ernakulam district. The Popular Front was planning to hold the programme at seven places in the State.

Muraleedharan said that the Congress-led UDF was protecting the Popular Front in the State. He said the statement by Opposition leader Oommen Chandy that an entire community could not be held responsible for the violence by some people was an expression of indirect support to the Islamist force. “Oommen Chandy has become the best friend of Popular Front,” he said.

Muraleedharan’s criticism gained credence when the leaders in a UDF delegation to Muvattupuzha, where suspected Popular Front activists chopped off the right hand of a college professor, refused to name the Popular Front as the extremist force which was behind the current troubles in Kerala. The delegation was led by UDF convener PP Thankachan and Kerala Congress chairman KM Mani.

Asked whether the UDF would want the Popular Front to be banned in the State, Mani tried to avoid uttering the name of the organization. When mediamen persisted in the question, Mani said, “The name does not matter. There should be steps to finish off all extremist forces,” he said. Like Chandy, he too said that the acts of some forces with foreign connections could not be seen as those of a community.

The UDF delegation visited the spot in Muvattupuzha where the attack on TJ Joseph, professor of Newman College, took place for preparing a question paper that allegedly blasphemed Prophet Muhammad. They also talked to Salome, wife of Joseph, and other relatives. Joseph was attacked on July 4, when he was returning home from a church in Muvattupuzha on July 4 after Sunday Mass.

The police arrested yet another Popular Front activist on Saturday in the case pertaining to the attack on the professor. KA Ali, arrested from Aluva near Kochi, was said to have been involved in the conspiracy related to the attack on Joseph. A forged SSLC book and several faked documents were reportedly seized from him.

Meanwhile, the police recovered bombs, materials used in bomb-making, gun powder, swords, galvanized iron pipes and other materials from a graveyard near the Popular Front office in Chovveri, Thrikkarippur in Kasaragod district. Popular Front activists Liaqatali and Muhseen were taken into custody in connection with the seizure. Raids on the offices of the Popular Front and the homes of their leaders had been going on all over the State for the past one week.

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