KOCHI: The state police, which have plunged from one PR disaster to the other that has badly dented their image, are now facing flak for labelling three Youth Congress workers, who had staged a protest in front of district Rural SP office in the wake of law student Mofiya Parveen’s suicide, as ‘terrorists’.
Youth Congress workers Al Ameen Ashraf, M A K Najeeb and Anas Pallikkuzhi, who were arrested late on Friday, were charged with terror links, according to the remand report submitted by police. “The attempt to dub Youth Congress workers as extremists shows a fascist approach. We will not tolerate this. Stringent action should be taken against officials who defame public servants,” said district Congress committee president Mohammed Shiyas. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is trying to imitate Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath by looking at the religion of protesters and labelling them as extremists, he said.
Meanwhile, Aluva MLA Anwar Sadath urged the chief minister to take stringent action against the officers who termed the protestors terrorists. However, the officer who prepared the remand report said that accused persons were not slapped with terror charges. “The custody application was sought based on the crime they allegedly committed. There are several cases against these persons,” said the officer.