Kerala school in soup after exhorting students to lay down their lives for Islam

Thiruvananthapuram: A case has been registered against a school in Kochi for allegedly teaching students objectionable content and exhorting them to lay down their lives for Islam, with police suspecting that the curriculum has been drafted with persons close to controversial preacher Zakir Naik.

The Peace International School at Thammanam in Ernakulam is run by a trust headed by some "influential local businessmen".

Police have registered a case under Sect 153A and 34 IPC against the school principal, administrator and three trustees, police sources said.

The case was registered on the basis of a report filed by the Ernakulam District Education Officer, stating that "what was being taught was not secular".

"The case was registered for teaching students objectionable content in the syllabus... what was not secular. Islamic curriculum was being followed and students were being exhorted to lay down their lives for Islam", the sources said.

The school has classes from the LKG to eighth standard. "We suspect that this school's curriculum has been drafted with persons close to controversial preacher Zakir Naik, of Mumbai based Islamic International School," the sources said.

Naik, an Islamic televangelist, was in the eye of a storm recently for allegedly preaching radical views.

Abdul Rashid, one among the 21 persons from Kerala who had gone missing and is suspected to have joined ISIS, had worked as Public Relations Officer at the school there. His wife Mariam, had worked as a teacher in the school. Recently, six persons were arrested in Kerala for suspected links with the ISIS.