Cops statements hint at IUML conspiracy

KOZHIKODE: The allegation that the UDF government’s decision to dissolve the inquiry commission to probe the police firing in Kasargod in 2009 was to protect the interests of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) could turn out to a scourge.The statements given by retired SP Ramdas Pothen and DySP K V Raghuraman, on behalf of the district police chief, Kasargod, before the inquiry commission on the circumstances that led to the firing at Kasargod clearly point out a planned role of Muslim League activists and Muslim fundamentalist organisations in the incident.The police officers say that the IUML workers had formed separate groups with deadly weapons in order to incite large-scale communal violence and attacked the ‘Sree Shanmukha Bhajana Mandir’ at the Amey Colony and pelted stones at houses of people belonging to Hindu community. “There was involvement of outside persons in precipitating the attacks on temple, shops and houses of Hindus and also the attack on Police personnel,” the SP says in the statement, which is accessed by ‘Express’.In his statement, Ramdas who was the SP of Kasargod at the time of the incident maintains that the information that the members of the Hindu community were gathering in various parts of the town to protest against the attack on temple necessitated an urgent action to disperse the violent mob.“An outbreak of serious communal tension was likely to happen at any moment resulting in loss of human lives and personnel. Since thebursting of grenades and lathi charge failed to disperse the unruly mob, firing was done as a last resort to restore the law and order situation and to save the lives of the police party,” he adds.The statement also notes the attack by Popular Front activists against the CPM activists and the police on the same day and clearly points out that “the Muslim fundamentalists hatched a conspiracy to incite serious communal violence in the Malabar region and the incidents strongly implicate the involvement of fundamentalist groups which had planned a series of attacks on police and rival communities.”According to him, permission was not given to conduct any procession or rally in connection with the reception organised by the IUML Kasargod district committee.