KOZHIKODE: The raging ‘Pakistani flag’ controversy took a twist on Sunday with the police saying it just had a resemblance.
Some of the television channels, both in India and Pakistan, had pic-ked up visuals of Muslim Students Federation (MSF) workers waving the flag, appe-ared on social media.
“It was neither a Pakistani nor an MSF flag,” Perambra station house officer K.K. Biju told this newspaper.
The flag appeared on the Silver Arts and Science College, Pera-mbra, campus on Tuesday during an election campaign. MSF is the student wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the key ally of the Congress party in Kerala.
“It has more resemblance with a Pakistani flag, going by the visuals, without the name of MSF inscribed on it,” he said.
The police had booked about 30 students based on the visuals appeared on WhatsApp.
“There was a 21-minute video spreading on social media based on which we suo motu registered a case,” he said.
The students face charges under IPC 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 153 (provoking riot wantonly or malignantly, which is illegal).
The flag was also seized and submitted to the judicial first class magistrate court, Perambra, on Saturday.
However, MSF leaders claimed that the name of the organisation was missing in the flag as the excited students made it in a rush as part of the campaign fever.
"The huge flag was initially used with a long pole, and later four students carried it as the pole broke," T.P. Ashraf Ali, national president of MSF, told DC.
“The visuals were shot by people with vested interests focusing from a particular point in such a way that it could resemble the Pakistani flag.”
He said if the police imposed such Acts on student gatherings on campuses during the election campaign, then all of them would be in trouble.
“We don’t know how the police slapped such sections on the students just for carrying a flag during the election campaign,” he said.
Slapping criminal sections on students for election campaigning has invited much criticism from the legal circles.
P.A. Pouran, lawyer and general secretary of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties in Kerala, said that the police in the state is behaving without logic for quite some time.
“Registering a case against a non-existent crime is yet another example of high-handedness of cops in the state,” he said.
“It has little legal sanctity as they admit that the offensive material is not a Pakistani flag.”
Meanwhile, the college authorities suspended six students who carried the flag.
Manager of the college A.K. Taruvai said the management also directed the principal to intimate the issue to the police as the visuals started spreading on WhatsApp.
“More action is likely against the students based on the findings of the investigation,” he told DC.
