The police arrested two activists of the Islamist organisation Popular Front on Monday, in the case related to the chopping of the palm of a lecturer of the New Man college in Thodupuzha, Kerala. The arrested are Jaffer from Kothamangalam and Ashraf from Kalady.
The lecturer TJ Joseph was on his way home after attending Sunday mass at a local church along with his eighty-eight year old mother and his sister who is a nun, when the untoward incident occurred.
The Islamist organisation had been threatening Joseph for a question that appeared in the question paper the New Man college. The organisations were of the view that the question had insulted Prophet Mohammed and Islam. The police had then arrested Joseph and remanded him to judicial custody, later he was released on bail.
There are reports that the police had not paid heed to intelligence reports of death threats against Joseph. The Popular Front activists had openly declared that the lecturer's right palm would be chopped off. There were also intelligence reports that the Popular Front was circulating notices against Joseph among its cadres to create an atmosphere of vengeance.
State home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and the state education minister M A Baby deplored the incident. The BJP state president V Muraleedharan said that the state police had failed miserably in protecting a person who was openly challenged by the Islamists and said that the Islamic organizations were trying to bring in Taliban rule in the state.
Sources said that several Popular Front activists in Ernakulam were in police custody. Meanwhile the Popular Front activists staged a demonstration in front of Muvattupuzha police station against the arrest of Asharaf.
