Reacting strongly to the attack on its district leaders late on Thursday, the Students’ Federation of India has said it will not be deterred by such attempts to destabilise the organisation or to frighten it into silence.
SFI State president Shiju Khan, addressing a press conference here on Friday, said the attack was a retaliation to the campaign that the SFI had launched in the district and across the State against the “attempts of the Popular Front of India (PFI) to communalise campuses here”.
Mr Khan also said there was no doubt that the PFI and its feeder organisations were behind Thursday’s attack at the Kerala University Students’ Centre, which left SFI district secretary A.M. Ansari and Union office secretary Jerin injured.
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“It is undoubtedly a brutal murder attempt, and we have no doubt who is behind it,” he said.
The PFI and its associated organisations, Mr. Khan alleged, were trying to rip apart the secular fabric of the campuses of the State and there were similar incidents of violence earlier too in Pangode, Peringamala, and Ambalathara. The hacking of the arm of a professor in Thodupuzha was another incident still fresh in the minds of the public, he said.
The SFI, he said, would organise a campaign against communalism on the State’s campuses from August 5 to 15, and would continue with its ongoing campaign in the district as well, he said.
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Stating that the SFI was expecting swift action from the police in connection with Thursday’s attack, Mr. Khan said the PFI would have to pay a heavy price if such incidents continued.