Shashi Tharoor, a Congress member, sparked outrage when he questioned whether there were two Malayali Taliban in one of the group’s celebratory videos released after the takeover of Kabul. “It sounds like there are at least two Malayali Taliban in this room — one who says “samsarikkette” around the 9-second mark, and another who understands him!” Tharoor wrote, “I shared a video that was originally shared on a Twitter account called Ramiz.” Ramiz later clarified that there are no Kerala-origin fighters in the rank and file of Taliban. “They are Baloch from Zabul province who speak Brahvi and Bravhi language is widely spokes among them. It is a Dravidian language which is very similar to Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam etc,” Ramiz, who claims to be interested in conflict journalism, wrote.
To Ramiz’s explanation, Tharoor said that it is indeed interesting and only linguists can figure this out. “But there have indeed been misguided Malayalis who joined the Taliban, so that possibility cannot be ruled out entirely,” the MP wrote drawing wrath on social media.
Twitter users accused Tharoor of branding the entire Malayali community as terrorist sympathisers because of just one word. Such a statement should not come from the MP, one user said, as it would only fuel “right wing’s hate campaign against Kerala”. Tharoor said it’s because he is the MP that he is aware of the situation. In past, he was approached by Kerala women whose daughters were stuck in Afghanistan after “having been taken there by their misguided husbands,” Tharoor wrote adding that he had also arranged a meeting with then external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on this issue. “Obviously, it’s as an MP that I am aware of the situation,” he wrote.
“I am sure all those who decried my tweet about the possibility of Malayalis in the Taliban will now notice the ones who were released from the government’s prisons today,” Tharoor wrote after sharing a news article about Nimisha Fathima, a Keralite woman who landed in an Afghan jail following the killing of her IS husband a couple of years ago.
According to a Matrubhumi news article shared by Tharoor, the Taliban released over 5,000 prisoners from Kabul jails, the majority of whom were Taliban and Al Qaeda members. According to the report, eight Keralites, including Nimisha, were among those who were released.
