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Journalism of Courage
Less than four months after he sparked off a controversy for reportedly insulting Prophet Muhammed in a question paper,a college lecturer,T J Joseph,was attacked by some unidentified men who chopped off his right hand,at Muvattupuzha in central Kerala today.
Police have taken into custody two suspected activists of the right-wing Popular Front of India. Joseph has been admitted to the Specialist Hospital in Kochi.
According to Josephs sister,Stella Joseph,the assailants in a van waylaid their vehicle and pulled out the lecturer,after bursting explosives to create a scare. While Joseph was being attacked,his mother and sister were warned not to step out of the vehicle. The gang fled the scene after severing his right hand.
Ernakulam SP T Vikram said the attack seemed to have been pre-planned. A blood-stained van,suspected to have been used by the assailants,has been seized.
In April this year,Joseph was arrested after a question paper set by him triggered protests by Muslims. He was later released on bail.
The question paper,for an internal degree exam in March,contained a text taken from an article written by P T Kunjumuhammed,a director of several award-winning films and former CPI(M) legislator.
Referring to his film Garshom,Kunjumuhammed explained in the article that the thread for a scene in the movie,in which the protagonist speaks to God,was picked from his own experience about a madman who used to speak to God. While reproducing the conversation as a passage for punctuation,Joseph replaced the mad man with Muhammed,thus making it seem like a dialogue between God and Muhammed.
Protesting against the question paper,Muslim organisations,particularly the Popular Front of India and Jamaat-e-Islami,had said it was an insult to Prophet Muhammed. The issue soon gained communal colour,leading to violent incidents in Thodupuzha region. There were attempts to trigger communal violence,after protesters targeted a temple in the town.
Joseph,who first went into hiding,later surrendered before the police. Meanwhile,the university suspended him for a year. Out on bail,Joseph had earlier complained to the police about a threat to his life.
Todays attack has evoked widespread protests from all political parties. Education Minister M A Baby said it was a deliberate attempt to create communal divide in society. The BJP said the incident indicated the growing influence of communal forces in Kerala.
