Jihadi books seized from NDF men

Two Popular Front of India (formerly NDF) activists and accused in the case of the July 4 attack on a college professor, Noushad and Reneef, were charged with crimes against the nation after Jihadi literatures were seized in raids on their homes even as the police released the sketches of two more absconding accused.

The police said a book titled Islam and Democracy, which had anti-national references, was recovered from the house of Noushad, who was absconding, while another book titled Jihad was found at the home of Reneef, a dentist by profession. Reneef was arrested last week after it was found that he had treated an assailant of the professor.

The book found at Noushad’s house had references like “Democracy is not acceptable to Islam” and “It is the duty of Muslims to fight against democracy”, said the police. The book, they said, was written by one Sarfaraz Nawaz, but it was not clear whether this was the LeT fund-raiser accused in the Bangalore bombings case.

The police said the book Jihad found at Reneef’s home was a translation of a work by Jama’at-e-Islami’s founder Moulana Mehdudi, whose ultimate goal was transformation of India into an Islamic state. Cases would be registered against the Kochi-based printers and publishers of these books.

Sources in the police said the seizure of the Jihadi literature proved that the Popular Front operations in the State were far more mysterious than they had expected earlier. At the very beginning of the investigation into the attack on the professor, the police had reportedly seized campaign materials of Al-Qaeda and Taliban in raids on the houses of Popular Front workers and leaders.

In the meantime, the police released the sketches of two more accused in the case of attack on Prof TJ Joseph of Newman College, Thodupuzha. According to the police, these two had directly participated in the attack in which the professor’s right hand was chopped off for preparing a question paper for an internal examination in the college, which allegedly blasphemed Prophet Muhammad.

The police had released the sketches of two other accused last weekend. All the sketches were prepared as per the descriptions given by Joseph’s mother Aliamma and sister Stella, who were with him when the attack took place, and eyewitnesses. They had also issued lookout notices for three of the absconding accused.

Meanwhile, the police further intensified the hunt for the absconding accused in the case in Ernakulam district. On Tuesday, they questioned the doctors and employees of a Kochi nursing home where one of the assailants of the professor, wounded during the attack, was treated. They held a second round of searches at the jewelry showrooms owned by Ayub, one of the accused, as part of this.

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