Kerala Newsletter : IS Connection: School under the Scanner
T Satisan, Kochi
Further to the news of missing 26 Keralites joining IS, now investigation agencies focus their attention on a school in Kochi, very close to the house of Mereen aka Mariam. Niche of Truth is a school managed by the Peace Foundation allegedly connected with infamous Muslim leader Dr Zakir Hussein.
Arshi Qureshi, arrested from Mumbai in connection with the religious conversion of Mereen and attempt to forceful conversion of her brother Ebin to Islam, is reported to have visited the school several times. Mereen, Isa, Yahya, Ijaz and Rashid Abdulla, the persons in the list of the people reported to have joined IS, were also frequent visitors to the school. Mereen is reported to have worked in the school for some time. Reports suggest that police has got information about several messages sent from the school computer in connection with IS. The school is situated in Vyttila, a place very close to Thammanam, the place of Mereen and Ebin. One of the four militants killed in a fight with Indian army in Kupwara in October, 2008 belonged to this place.
Islamisation camouflaged as palliative care T Satisan, Kochi A task force is reported to be active in forceful conversion to Islam in Sreemoolanagaram, near Kalati, the birth place of Adi Shankara. Unit of an organisation engaged in taking care of the old aged ones and the sick works there. They find out the poor Hindu families for conversion. They lure them by means of financial assistance and temptations. Local Hindus complain that the second wife of a former Panchayat Councilor invites Hindu girls to her house and persuades them to convert into Islam. The latest conversion was of a school peon and his family. The eldest daughter of the couple is reported to be in an unknown shelter. |
T Satisan, Kochi
Travancore Dewaswom Board (TDB) President and Congress leader Prayar Gopalakrishnan said that Hindus are not everybody’s whipping boys. If somebody airs this view, he is painted as RSS. He told a press conference that religious classes will be compulsory in Dewaswom temples. His bold statement was the reply to a question if such a step is against secularism. He added that Board’s Hindutva is bhakti and worship, not politics. Only those Hindus who do have temple darshan at least twice week will be eligible to be a member of the temple advisory committes. Such members should send the children of their families to the religious classes. Prayar added that since Dewasom is a constitutional institution he is not worried about the opposition to this step from LDF government led by CPM.
