Newspaper Report Examines Jihadist Activities in India's Kerala State After a Taliban-Style Court Ordered Chopping Off a Professor's Hand for Blasphemy

In July 2010, a Taliban-style court called "Darul Khada" ("God's court") in India's Kerala state ordered the chopping off of the hand of Professor T. D. Joseph on allegations that he had committed blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad. Joseph, who was accused of blasphemy in preparing an examination paper for Bachelor of Commerce students, is a professor of the Malayalam language at Newman's College in the town of Thodupuzha in Kerala, the southernmost state, where a communist government is in power.

According to a report on the Indian website rediff.com, "A group of eight persons, allegedly members of the Popular Front of India [PFI], had waylaid Joseph and chopped off his right hand."[1] A man named Ashraf, who was arrested in connection with the July 4 incident, told the police that the Darul Khada, which has been functioning in Kerala under the auspices of the PFI, ordered the chopping off of Joseph's right hand for committing blasphemy.[2] The incident has drawn attention of the national media to the urgency of the need to tackle the issue of Islamist extremist groups in southern India.

There are growing concerns that Muslim youth from Kerala have fought, alongside the Pakistani and Kashmiri militants, against Indian security forces in the Jammu & Kashmir state.

Muslim leaders have supported calls for containing the Islamist threat in the southern Indian state. According to another report in the Urdu-language newspaper Roznama Inquilab, several Muslim organizations and prominent Muslim personalities issued a joint statement, saying: “Those who attacked Mr. Joseph should remember that the Prophet of Islam... in his own life had pardoned a Jewess who used to throw garbage on him…The Prophet forgave the people of Mecca after its conquest although they had pained him, expelled him from his hometown, and had waged war against him for years."[3]

For its lush green beauty, the state of Kerala is known in India and internationally as "God's Own Country." Recently, a report titled "Taliban-Style Courts in God's Own Country" examined the growing jihadist threat in Kerala. Following are excerpts from the report:[4]

"Revelations… Include Al-Qaeda Training Tapes, Taliban-Style Courts that Dispense Justice According to Shari'a Law, Literature on Conversion, Explosives Enough to Kill Dozens…"

"'Hotbed of terrorism' is not the usual label for Kerala. But intelligence gathered by disparate [intelligence and security] agencies over the last few years suggests the description may not be far off the mark. Confirmation of this came with the horrifying incident of July 4, when a college lecturer's right hand was chopped off in Moovattupuzha, a town in Ernakulam district.

"The attack on T. J. Joseph was apparently in retaliation for setting a question paper that allegedly hurt Muslim sentiments. Police raids on offices of the Popular Front of India (PFI), whose activists are believed to be behind the attack, have exposed a well-oiled, pan-Islamist network fed by a heady mix of Wahhabism and hawala [transfer of money by illegal means]. Kerala's deep-rooted Gulf links also come in handy for the PFI.

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"The revelations… include Al-Qaeda training tapes, Taliban-style courts that dispense justice according to Shari'a law, literature on conversion, explosives enough to kill dozens, and documents indicating unusual interest in the Indian Navy.

"It was one of the PFI's Taliban-style 'courts' in Erattupettah in the Kottayam district that decided Joseph's fate. There are 13 more across Kerala, discreetly exhorting members of the community to stay away from regular courts which are deemed 'un-Islamic.' The state police is now taking a fresh look at three murders in Kannur, including that of a police constable. There is some suspicion the killings were ordered by Taliban-style courts…

"Radicalization of the northern districts [of Kerala] began in the 1990s. Fingerprints of the banned al-Ummah, which was behind the [1998] Coimbatore bombings, were found to be all over the murder of three Hindu youth – in Malappuram, Palakkad, and Thrissur – reportedly for having relations with Muslim women. In July 1993, reformist Islamic scholar Maulvi Abdul Hassan Chekannur was abducted from his home and slaughtered, allegedly by hardliners. That conspiracy is yet to be unravelled.

"But perhaps the jihadist network first became really visible in Marad, a sleepy fishing hamlet in the Kozhikode district. On May 2, 2003, eight Hindu fishermen were executed on the beach by a crack team, which appeared out of nowhere. It was said to be a revenge attack, and the execution betrayed a chillingly high level of training. Fingers were pointed at the National Development Front (NDF), headed among others by P. Koya, who was a founding member of SIMI, the banned Students Islamic Movement of India…"

"Kerala's… Men were Killed in an Encounter with Security Forces in Kashmir; They were En Route to PoK [Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir] for Training"

"Police believe the NDF was never more than a front to accommodate members of the Islamic Sevak Sangh… [ISS or Islamic Volunteer Service] – founded by radical cleric-turned-politician Abdul Nasser Madani – after it was proscribed. Even so, it managed to groom a dedicated cadre with jihadist leanings. In November 2006, the NDF merged with like-minded organizations – Manitha Neethi Pasarai of [the neighboring state of] Tamil Nadu and the Karnataka Forum for Dignity – to form the PFI.

"Barely two years later, Kerala's links with the global jihad became clear when four young Malayali [inhabitants of Kerala] men were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kashmir. They were en route to PoK [Pakistan-occupied Kashmir] for training. The incident brought some disquieting facts to light, not least the extensive recruitment of Kerala's young men for jihadist operations. Official estimates say as many as 300 young Malayalis were recruited from different parts of the state…

"Bomb attacks across the country in the last decade have had a Malayali imprint. That includes the May 2008 Jaipur blasts [in Rajasthan state], the serial bombings in Bangalore [in Karnataka state] in July 2008, and then in Delhi in September. Yet, there has been little action on the ground.

"Police officers accused of links with the organization remain free. Just recently, the Centre ordered an NIA probe into allegations that a senior IPS [Indian Police Service] officer, Tomin J. Thachankary, met suspected terrorists during a visit to Qatar in January this year…"