Thiruvananthapuram: BJP national secretary Anil Antony, who courted controversy for reacting immediately after a soldier on leave at Kadakkal in Kollam district raised a fake complaint over an assault by members of the extremist organization PFI, has defended his statement.

In a post on the X platform, Anil said that even though the soldier’s allegation turned out to be false, the issues raised by him (Anil) still had relevance. Anil also accused a section of people of attempting to whitewash the issue, ignoring the reality that Kerala was becoming a haven for Islamic extremists.

“A large number of terror-sympathizing gangs—politicians, media, and fact-checkers—all seem to be ruffled by some statements I made a couple of days ago. It turned out that the soldier and his friend were miscreants, but that doesn’t absolve the fact that Kerala is emerging as a dangerous epicenter of radical Islamists,” said Anil’s post.

He also said that the NIA had recently busted several underground activities of the PFI, which has links to ISIS. Moreover, an officer of the Kerala Police was suspended for leaking sensitive information to these terror groups, Anil pointed out.

He also alleged that ‘INDI’ Alliance partners such as Congress, the CPM, and the Muslim League, along with a section of the media and their fact-checker friends, were using this one incident to whitewash a large antisocial and anti-national network and its dubious activities.

Anil has tagged the post to the Union Home Minister’s office.

The complaint was filed by Shine (35), a soldier at 751 Field Workshop in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, while he was on leave at his native place, Kadakkal. Shine told the police that he was thrashed by a group of people, and they had stamped the letters ‘PFI’ on his back.

However, Shine and his friend Joshy (40) were arrested by a team led by Kollam Rural SP M L Sunil after they discovered that the complaint was false.

According to the police, Shine was supposed to return to Rajasthan for duty on Monday, and he carried out the drama along with Joshy on Sunday night. Shine cooked up the story in order to evade soldier duty and due to his hostility towards PFI, said the police. He also wished to earn some publicity.

Soon after Shine filed the police complaint, Anil Antony gave an interview to a news agency in which he unleashed severe criticism against the Kerala government. Later, when the soldier’s complaint turned out to be fake, Youth League general secretary P K Firoz demanded that a case be filed against Anil for spreading communal hatred.

In his interview, Anil said that under Communist rule, Kerala had become a place where people following extremist Islamic ideology could roam around freely. Consequently, the situation in Kerala had worsened, and it could even threaten national security, he added.

“Crimes in which even women and children are attacked cruelly have been witnessed frequently over the last eight years. Such an incident took place yesterday. An Indian soldier was waylaid, and the letters PFI were painted on his back. However, no CPM or Congress leader reacted to the incident. These leaders are busy pampering a section of minorities and have an eye only on the vote bank,” said Anil.