Kozhikode: Sunni Tiger Force member held in '94 murder case

Kozhikode: The arrest of an accused in a 25-year-old murder case has unravelled the involvement of an extremist organisation that was active in Thrissur, Malappuram and Palakkad districts in 1990s.

Chavakkad native Moinudeen, a member of the now-defunct outfit Jam-Iyyathul Ihsania (also known as Sunni Tiger Force ), was arrested by a team from Malappuram on Saturday in a case related to the murder of RSS worker Sunil Kumar in Kunnamkulam.

The RSS worker was murdered by a gang that barged into his house on December 4, 1994. The local police that probed the case arraigned seven CPM workers in the case and four among them were sentenced to life imprisonment by the sessions court. Later, the high court acquitted the accused and ordered a re-investigation in the case.

Moinudeen, who was a karate instructor at the time of the incident, was currently working as a hotel employee. Police said that Saithalavi alias Anvari was the main accused in the case and absconding for years. All the accused in the case have been identified by the police.

Jam-Iyyathul Ihsania came into being in the tumultuous period after the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.

Formed allegedly by the followers of the Sunni leader Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musaliyar, the role of the outfit is suspected in at least six murders and a series of attacks on cinema theatres and liquor shops in Malappuram districts in 1990s.

Initially, the murder of Kunnamkulam Sunil, (December 4, 1994), Vadanappaly Rajeevan (December 29, 1995), Kolathur Mohanachandran, (August 18, 1995), Mathilam Santhosh (August 10, 1996), Kollankode Mani (August 14, 1996), and Valancheri Thami (August 26, 1996) were considered as unrelated incidents. But the crime branch probe in 1999 revealed that these murders were the results of deep rooted conspiracy and carried out by the activists of Sunni Tigers.