Tharoor’s tweet suggesting presence of Malayalis in Taliban triggers row
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has landed in a controversy over his tweet suggesting presence of Malayalis in Taliban ranks. Tharoor tweeted a video clip of a Taliban militant weeping in joy on reaching the outskirts of Kabul.
Tharoor tweeted, “It sounds as if there are at least two Malayali Taliban here — one who says “samsarikatte” (it means let me speak in Malayalam).
His tweet generated a heated debate on the social media. In a reply to Tharoor’s tweet, a journalist Ramiz, tweeted, “there are no Kerala origin fighters in rank and file of Taliban. They (those in the video) are Baloch from Zabul province who speak Brahvi language . It’s a Dravidian language very similar to Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam.”
Following Ramiz’s explanation, Tharoor retweeted, “interesting explanation. Will leave it to the linguists to figure this one out. But there have indeed been misguided Malayalis who joined the Taliban, so that possibility cannot be ruled out entirely.”
A section of people slammed Tharoor for parotting RSS-BJP’s often repeated charge that Kerala is breeding ground for extremist elements.
Interestingly, Tharoor’s controversial tweet came on a day when NIA team from Delhi arrested two women from Kannur district in Kerala for propogating IS ideology on the social media. They were produced in court via video conferencing.
In March last, an NIA team visited their house in Kannur and recorded their statements besides gathering evidence. Subsequently they were summoned to Kochi office for further questioning. The investigation agency reportedly collected enough evidence to carry out their arrests now.
The allegation against them is that they propogated IS ideas in social media to attract youth for recruitment.
They formed a group on social media named Chronicle Foundation. The members of the foundation belong to Kozhikode, Malappuram and Kasargod districts. Earlier two men were arrested from Kannur and Malappuram respectively.
Meanwhile, BJP national president J.P. Nadda on Tuesday alleged that Kerala had turned into a safe haven for terror outfits. He lashed out at the LDF government for its
PTI
failure to take stern action against terror outfits. Nadda was speaking at a
function in Kozhikode to mark the inauguration of new party office.