Cops to probe Hamas's leader's virtual speech as Islamic event in Kerala

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday that police will investigate the purported virtual speech given by a Hamas commander at an Islamist organization event in the state, and that necessary action would be done if anything improper had occurred.

The chief minister claimed that the BJP wanted to falsely accuse people for just voicing their support for Palestine, and that this would not be allowed in Kerala.

He emphasized that the country and the state had always backed Palestine; the Center’s position has just recently shifted.

Vijayan was responding to a query inviting his attention to remarks by BJP chief J P Nadda and Union Minister of State for Electronics Rajeev Chandrasekhar that neither the Left government nor the police intervened to prevent the Hamas leader’s address.

The CM said the address appears to have been a recorded one, and what was said in it has to be examined.

“The person referred to as a Palestinian warrior spoke at an event organised by the Solidarity Youth Movement, the youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. We need to see what he said.

“It appears that the speech was a recorded one. We need to understand that issue properly,” he said, speaking to reporters at Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) here.

He further said that when Jamaat-e-Islami or any other organisation approaches the police for permission to hold an event, it is not denied. “That is what happened in the instant case,” he said, adding, “If something is wrong in that, the police will examine it, and action will be taken.”

At the same time, he alleged that Chandrasekhar and his friends “are trying to find ways to lodge cases against those who are showing support for Palestine”.

“They are trying to implicate them (Palestine supporters) in cases. That will not happen in Kerala,” the CM said.

Referring to Hamas leader Khaled Mashal’s virtual participation in a protest programme organised by an Islamist group in the state recently against Israel’s war with the militant outfit, Nadda alleged that he spoke openly about his organisation and that the Left government was a “silent spectator”.

“What does it mean? You are bringing a bad name to the land of ‘God’s Own Country’ Kerala”, Nadda said, while addressing workers of the BJP-led NDA who laid siege to three of the four gates of the Kerala Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram in protest against the alleged misrule of the Left government in the state.

Chandrasekhar, at a press conference here, said the Hamas chief was given an opportunity, with no intervention by the Kerala government or police, to address a large gathering of youth and incite them with radicalism.”

(With inputs from agencies)