THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BJP state president K Surendran has said that those supporting the Taliban are the ones who are whitewashing the 1921 Moplah riots. He alleged that the ruling party and the opposition in Kerala are playing new politics after the Taliban took control over Afghanistan.

"This is a state with a speaker who says that Bhagat Singh and Variyamkunnan are the same. What is happening here is a distortion of history. Political leaders in Kerala are cultivating religious extremism. In Kerala, mainstream political parties are vying to support the Taliban," Surendran said in a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram.

He also said that the Kerala police and government were taking an irresponsible approach as the presence of religious extremist forces in the state was growing. "The arrest of Kashmiris with unlicensed firearms in Thiruvananthapuram is serious. The accused in the parallel telephone exchange case were arrested by the Telangana police from Kakkanad. Parallel telephone exchange, which has links to gold smuggling is regulated in Pakistan. It works for terrorist organizations. Accused in the Thiruvananthapuram International Gold Smuggling and Karipur Gold Smuggling had used a parallel telephone exchange. However, the state police remained mute spectators," he added.