POLITICS
12/02/2020 8:21 AM IST
Islamist Fundamentalists Severed His Hand, But Kerala Prof. Says His Church Did Worse
T.J. Joseph’s hand was cut off by PFI cadre 10 years ago, but it was the subsequent excommunication from his church that really upended his life.
By K.A. Shaji
Thodupuzha, KERALA — On July 4, 2010, T.J. Joseph was returning home from Sunday mass with his family in Kerala’s Idukki district when a group of seven menstopped his car, dragged him out and chopped off his right hand at the wrist. The attackers accused Joseph, a Catholic and the head of the department of Malayalam at Newman College in Thodupuzha, of blasphemy and of insulting Prophet Mohammed in a question paper he had set. The gory incident made national and international headlines and was widely condemned.
According to the National Investigation Agency, the men who attacked Joseph “with deadly weapons and explosive materials†were members of the Popular Front of India (PFI). This organisationcalls itself a social movement for the empowerment of minority communities, but is often labelled a radical outfitsuspected of political killings and links with the Islamic State militant group. Most recently, in December 2019, several of its activists were arrested for allegedly instigating violence against the Citizenship Amendment Act in multiple states.
https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/t-j-joseph-pfi-kerala-autobiography_in_5e4293c2c5b6b70887074a3d
