Palakkad: The members of a fundamentalist group attacked a young writer here for writing a book named ‘Padachonde Chitrapradar- shanam’ ( A show of God’s paintings), a collection of nine short stories, which is to be published on Aug. 5. The writer, P. Jimshar, who was seriously injured in the attack that occurred at Koottanad private bus stop, near here, around 10.30 p.m. on Sunday, is undergoing treatment at a private hospital at Koottanad.
Chalissery police filed a case against four identifiable persons, including Jaffer, a resident of Koonammoochi near Koottanad, who is associated with a fundamentalist Islamic political party. He is absconding. The assailants, who were provoked by the title of the book, mentioned about it while beating him up, the writer said in his complaint to the police.
A visual of the story.
He also said that Jaffer had sent a voice message to him after he posted the cover of the book as his WhatsApp profile threatening to ‘deal with’ him for writing such a book. An autorickshaw driver, who saw the writer lying on the roadside after the assault, took him to the hospital.
Jimshar had also worked as an assistant film director and had been receiving several threats after he took to the social media about the release of his book. The police said none at the place where the incident happened had corroborated the statement given by the writer and that they were further investigating the incident. Thrithala MLA V.T. Balram condemned the attack in his Facebook post and said that the matter would be taken up with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is handling the home ministry.
