Kerala Christian Professor Mutilated by Muslim Fundamentalists




Dr. O. P. Sudrania

Yet again the fundamentalists in Kerala State of India are on the prowl. This time they are aggrieved with this Christian Professor in a local College for an alleged blasphemous question paper involving the prophet, which has infuriated them. While others allege that there was no such blasphemous issue was involved to cause a stigma and undue fury.

The story as reproduced here is run in the major news media in India, “Lecturer T J Joseph was returning home from church with his mother and sister around 8.30 am in Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district when he was accosted by the attackers. “We had just got into our car when a van pulled up in front. Around eight people armed with swords and knives emerged and pulled out Joseph after smashing the windscreen.

They then chopped off his right hand and stabbed him in the left thigh,” said Joseph’s sister, Mary Stella, a nun, “When we tried to prevent them, they attacked me and our mother before exploding bombs and fleeing.”

A police team recovered the severed hand from the compound of a house about 200m away. The 52-year-old lecturer was rushed to a private hospital where his condition is serious.”

Meanwhile, the severed palm of Joseph was joined in a major surgery which lasted for 15 long hours at Specialists’ Hospital, Ernakulam. The doctors stated that presently they cannot call the surgery a completely successful one.

Joseph was with his eighty year old mother and Sister Mary Stella, a nun. The van which was later recovered from Jaffer who hid the Maruti van used by the attackers was arrested on Sunday noon itself. The police found that the van was bought from Thrissur by one K.K. Ali of Kothamangalam. Ali is absconding.

In March this year, Islamic outfits had carried out protests against T. J. Joseph, who was a lecturer in the church-run Newman College in Thodupuzha in Idukki district over a portion in the Malayalam question paper for an internal examination for B.Com students.

Thodupuzha town, the commercial nerve-centre of Idukki district, had seen stiff protests by various Muslim organisations in March last when the question paper scandal had broken out. Several persons were injured in clashes with police and prohibitory orders were imposed around Newman’s College.

They claimed that the question paper insulted the Prophet. The college later suspended Joseph who had set the questions and a criminal case was registered against him. The case is pending trial.

Two men, said to be activists of the Popular Front, a new incarnation of the hardline National Democratic Front, have also been taken into custody. Special police squads are searching sensitive areas in and around the town.

The two activists were arrested on Monday, in the case related to the chopping of the palm of a lecturer of the New Man College in Thodupuzha, (Kerala state, India) were remanded to 14 days by Muvattupuzha First Class Judicial Magistrate. The accused are Jaffer from Kothamangalam and Ashraf from Kalady. The two were found guilty on charges of attempt to murder, plotting and accumulating explosives.

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.

Reacting to the incident, State home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told reporters in New Delhi that the police would probe if any communal or terrorist outfit was involved.

The BJP alleged that the home department could not evade responsibility for the growth of terror outfits in Kerala. “This is a direct consequence of the soft attitude adopted by the Left and Congress towards terrorist outfits,” said BJP state chief V Muraleedharan.

Education Minister MA Baby, a CPI (M) central committee member, termed the attack on the teacher as an effort to polarize the society on communal lines.

Kerala Congress chairman KM Mani said the incident proved the failure of the State Home department. He said the police had failed to provide security to the professor and his family even after receiving their complaints.

In another interesting trend reported by Zeenews.com is that an alleged suspect has threatened a police officer against continuing searches in his house, police said.

Rasheed (30), an activist of Muslim fundamentalist outfit, People's Front, suspected to behind the attack, had criminally intimidated Circle Inspector Famous Varghese, who is in the investigation team, Rural SP T Vikram said here.

(Dr O. P. Sudrania is a retired senior surgeon and teacher; also engaged in research of socio-political analytical science as a part of service to humanity.)