Fewer migrants have criminal antecedents

“Kerala is not a safe haven for such extremist elements and the arrest of Dinga alias Lidion Basumatari is a strong case in point. Kerala police is vigilant enough to note the infiltration of such elements, who try to conceal themselves with the migrant population here. Most of the migrant workers are poor people who come in search of a livelihood,” a senior police official attached to the Kozhikode city police said.

The migrant workers are also not happy with such elements that jeopardise their survival in the state. “Such criminal elements can be found anywhere. We have several Assamese youths working here and most of them belong to very poor families and are not involved in any crimes,” Sutara, an Assamese labourer at Kozhikode said.

State intelligence officials say that migrants with extremist connections are monitored acro-ss the country and their movements are also being tracked. “They may manage to hide here for brief periods but we can get them through our intelligence network, which works in coordination with agencies based in other states,” an intelligence official said.

Kerala is now heavily dependent on migrant labourers. They have replaced Keralites in almost all fields of daily wage labour. “If we create a sense of insecurity among them, then Kerala is going to suffer badly. If these laboures return to their native places, several ongoing construction works will be stalled due to the lack of work force,” M Vijayan, a construction contractor in the city, said.