Kanthapuram to begin 16­day yatra to mark Samastha cen­ten­ary

Close on the heels of a rally led by Samastha Ker­ala Jem­iyyathul Ulama pres­id­ent Sayyid Jifri Muthukkoya Thangal, Sunni leader Kanthapuram A.P. Aboo­backer Musli­yar has announced plans to launch a 16­day ‘Ker­ala Yatra’ under the ban­ner of the Ker­ala Muslim Jamaat to com­mem­or­ate the Samastha cen­ten­ary.

Mr. Kanthapuram will lead the ‘Ker­ala Yatra,’ which car­ries the theme ‘With Humans.’ The yatra will begin from Kas­ar­a­god on Janu­ary 1 and con­clude in Thiruvananthapuram on Janu­ary 16.

“As part of the cen­ten­ary cel­eb­ra­tions, a full­fledged Samastha con­ven­tion will be held in 2026, the details of which will be announced later. The organ­isa­tion has drawn up a detailed action plan for the future,” Mr. Kanthapuram told the media here on Monday.

The yatra will com­mence at Syed Maudany Makham at Ullal in Kas­ar­a­god. Samastha pres­id­ent of this fac­tion E. Sulai­man Musli­yar and chair­man of the Ker­ala Yatra K.S. Attakkoya Thangal will hand over the flag to yatra cap­tain Kanthapuram Musli­yar at 3 p.m. The yatra will spend a day in each dis­trict of Ker­ala and will also pass through Gud­alur in the Nil­giris dis­trict of Tamil Nadu.

Chief Min­is­ter Pin­arayi Vijayan and Leader of the Oppos­i­tion V.D. Satheesan are expec­ted to attend the vale­dict­ory func­tion at the Putharik­an­dam ground in Thiruvananthapuram on Janu­ary 16. Sev­eral other polit­ical lead­ers and people’s rep­res­ent­at­ives are also expec­ted to attend recep­tions organ­ised in vari­ous dis­tricts.

Respond­ing to quer­ies, Mr. Kanthapuram said Samastha had no role in the LDF’s defeat in the recent local body polls and had no plans to enter polit­ics in the near future. He said the Samastha did not con­sider a per­son’s reli­gion or polit­ical affil­i­ation while extend­ing help, cit­ing the case of Nim­isha Priya, the Ker­ala nurse con­victed of murder and facing a death sen­tence in Yemen.

https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-kochi-9WW8/20251230/281651081468513