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Bengaluru: Investigation agencies in Kerala have found early evidence indicating the role of some “Islamic fundamentalist organisations” behind the sudden protest by migrant workers in Kottayam district last week, ThePrint has learnt.

The protest that broke out in Payippad village Sunday was one of the first major violations of the 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

According to sources in the Kerala Police, they have tracked social media posts and profiles as well as several messages linked to people behind the protest. The probe is indicating that the protest was not spontaneous but a result of detailed planning by “Islamic fundamentalist organisations”, said the sources.

Two migrants from West Bengal — Mohammed Rinju and Anwar Ali — were arrested Monday in connection with the protest. While Rinju was arrested on charges of assembling the migrant workers, Ali is suspected to have initiated the call for the protest via phone calls and messages, the sources said. Both were released on bail later.

The two men’s links to any Islamic organisation, however, is yet to be established, the sources added.

“There have been instances where we have found that suspected persons have made a lot of calls. We are looking into all these aspects. We can’t name a specific group for now, but there are indications that the people we suspect have tried to instigate. We are looking at more linkages,” said Ernakulam Inspector General Kaliraj Mahesh Kumar, who is heading a ten-member team probing the matter.

According to the police, a similar protest was allegedly being planned by a group associated with an Islamic political outfit, Welfare Party of India, in Allapuzha. Naseeruddin, the district president of the party, has been arrested for sending out messages instigating the migrant labourers to gather in protest.

The police is also screening the phones and social media pages of several migrant workers to trace the people behind the protests.

Also read: ‘Test more, prepare post-lockdown plan’ — over 800 scientists appeal to Modi govt

The protest

On Sunday morning, over 2,000 migrant labourers defied the national lockdown in Payippad village of Kottayam, seeking food and transport to go back to their hometowns.

The protest caught the Kerala government by surprise as it defied not just the prohibitory orders during the lockdown, but also posed a major health and law and order situation for the state.

The workers were demanding special arrangements to go back to their home states and refused to budge until a decision was arrived at. The local police swung into action and dispersed the crowd when it began to swell in front of news media.

The arrests

After the two aforementioned suspects were arrested, the Kerala Police using the media footage intensified the search for migrants who were on streets during the protests.

A team of inspectors landed at the labour camps in Payippad and confiscated 20 mobile phones. Most of the messages on the phones asking the workers to assemble were sent though WhatsApp, said the sources.

The police is now tracing the contacts of some migrant workers who were found posting messages in Hindi and English, tagging certain handles on microblogging site Twitter seeking their intervention soon after the protest.

The police arrested Naseeruddin, the Allapuzha district president of the Welfare Party of India’s Kerala unit, after it found evidence that he was trying to organise a migrant protest in his area akin to the one in Kottayam.

According to the police, he had met migrant workers housed in camps near Haripad and surrounding places and enquired about the quality of the food served there and if they lacked facilities.

Naseeruddin is believed to have later called several migrant workers and asked them to protest so the government comes under pressure to provide them with transport to go back to their homes, said the police.

He has been charged under sections of Kerala’s new law for pandemic control.

Also read: Govt wants report on PPE, ventilator, test kit stock, asks states, UTs to reply by 5 April

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