Days after Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) worker Aslam was murdered by unknown assailants in Nadapuram, a video of IUML MLA Parakkal Abdulla in which he openly calls for a retaliatory attack has gone viral.
In the under 1 minute video of a Kerala Muslim Culture Centre (KMCC) meeting held in Dubai, the Kuttiyadi MLA is heard telling the gathering that they must retaliate not just for Aslam’s murder a few days ago, but also for the murder of another worker, K P Nasarudeen.
Nasarudeen was murdered in Kozhikode in July this year and the police had taken four Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) workers into custody for their suspected involvement in the murder.
“Why did SDPI workers kill him? Shouldn’t we kill them? Shouldn’t we also avenge the murder of Nasarudeen along with killing the assailants of Aslam? It is not that IUML workers have any problem in killing them. What is it that stops us from doing so?” the MLA is heard exhorting the gathering.
After the intervention of other people on the dais (the conversation is not clearly audible at this point), the MLA is heard re-assuring those who objected that it was not inappropriate to say so, considering the gathering was attended by their own workers.
The MLA then goes on to say that the IUML does not retaliate for these attacks because it wants peace to prevail.
Refuting reports that he called for retaliatory attacks in his speech, MLA Parakkal Abdulla said in a Facebook post on Monday that he had been misquoted by the media.
Reproducing his words in the post, he wrote that he had said retaliatory attacks will not be carried out by IUML not because it is incapable of doing so, but because the party wants peace to prevail.
Aslam, who was murdered on August 12, had 67 stab wounds in his body, including 13 on the face and his hands were chopped.