Kasaragod (Kerala), Jul 26 (PTI) The Kerala Police on Wednesday arrested five persons for allegedly raising provocative slogans during a march organised by the youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) in the northern district of Kasaragod, officials said here.
Over 300 people, mostly members of the Muslim Youth League, were booked for raising provocative slogans during the march organised by it on Tuesday in solidarity with the victims of violence in Manipur.
An officer of the Hosdurg police station said the arrested persons included activists of the Youth League and its parent organisation, IUML.
He said the cases were registered against 307 identifiable persons, including Muslim Youth League National Secretary Firoz Babu and its district leaders who participated in the march.
The case was filed based on a complaint by the president of the Kanhangad mandalam of BJP’s youth wing Yuvamorcha.
They have been booked under various sections of the IPC, including 153A, which deals with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony.
They have also been booked under IPC Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting), and 149 (every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of an offence committed in prosecution of a common object).
As the video of the provocative sloganeering went viral on social media, the Youth League expelled the worker who raised the provocative slogans from the organisation.
In a statement, Youth League State President Panakkad Sayyid Munavvarali Shihab Thangal expressed deep regret over the incident and said creating hatred between various communities is not the policy of the Muslim League.
Youth League State General Secretary P K Firoz said Abdul Salam from Kanhangad Municipality was expelled from the Youth League as he raised slogans that are against its ideology.
He also said the workers shouted slogans deviating from the printed version given to them for raising during the march.
Slamming the Youth League and Muslim League, which is a key ally of the Congress-led UDF opposition in Kerala, the BJP alleged that the provocative slogans were raised with the support of the CPI(M)-led LDF government and that the state “is now the new pit of rabid radicalisation”.
“Youth wing of the Indian Union Muslim League, an ally of the Congress, held a rally in Kerala’s Kasaragod, and raised vile anti-Hindu slogans, threatening to hang them (Hindus) in front of Temples and burn them alive…They wouldn’t have dared to go this far had the Pinarayi Govt not been supporting them,” BJP’s National Information & Technology in-charge Amit Malviya alleged in a tweet.
“Are Hindus and Christians now safe in Kerala?” he asked. PTI COR TGB HDA
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