Kerala Home Minister admits – Talibanism spread in the state

Resign, BJP tells Kodiyeri

VR Jayaraj | Kozhikode – Daily Pioneer

The Kerala BJP on Wednesday asked Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, a CPI(M) Politbureau member, to resign as Home Minister owning up the responsibility for allowing the terror situation to deteriorate into the present stage. The BJP made the demand in the context of Kodiyeri’s admission through a newspaper article that Talibanism had spread in Kerala.

State BJP president V Muraleedharan told newsmen in Kozhikode that Kodiyeri had no moral right to continue in office as he was unable to take the right action at the right time against the terror modules despite warning by the Central Intelligence agencies on the issue. Referring to the Home Minister’s appeal through a newspaper article for joint efforts to contain terrorist menace, Muraleedharan said this itself was a testimony to the failure of his administration.

Pointing out that Kodiyeri was now admitting the existence in Kerala of Islamic courts and police fashioned on the model of the Taliban, the BJP leader alleged that the Minister and his party had so far allowed the extremists to operate freely. He said that Kodiyeri and the Home Department had refused to take necessary action in several crucial cases of extremism.

Kodiyeri, in his capacity as State Home Minister had denied killings of four Keralites in encounter with security forces in Kashmir in October 2008, he said. The Home Department had also failed to track down about 300 Malayalees reportedly recruited by terror elements in Kashmir for subversive activities, Muraleedharan added..

The State BJP has already decided to launch a Kerala-wide campaign against terrorism in the wake of recent terrorist incidents. State BJP general secretary AN Radhakrishnan alleged that both the CPI(M)-led ruling LDF and the Congress-headed Opposition UDF had been supporting terrorism in the State.

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