"Love jihad shouldn’t be viewed only from the love angle, but addressed at a broader level. This is not to target any particular community. Secular political parties should at least accept that love jihad exists here. A small group of people in the state is continuously getting radicalised and it has its links to international and global Islam. It varies in names, but people and leadership of these groups are almost the same... It’s a major problem we’ve been facing for many years, but secular political parties in Kerala are not interested in discussing these issues. It’s part of their politics. Every death and killing that happens in the state is sidelined as a “isolated” incident. A series of killings have taken place and yet no mainstream party in the state has addressed the issue. There have been reports that the radical groups were involved in the killings and the government has all the details... “Even today we received phone calls from worried Christian parents seeking help and counselling for their daughters. It’s not about getting married to someone from another religion. In these cases, we don’t see them living happily after the marriage. We’ve been monitoring the issues. The police themselves have revealed in many cases that girls have gone missing after marriage or they have joined the Islamic State and were being used as sex slaves. That means it was not love. Love has been used as a weapon."