Thiruvananthapuram, Oct. 15: The Kerala government has sought a report from police on the charge that the National Security Guard had dropped two police drivers from Opposition leader L.K. Advani’s escort duty yesterday because they are Muslim.

The Muslim League, a Congress ally, had demanded a high-level inquiry into the “religious discrimination”. League general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty called the incident “a blot on Kerala and an affront to the secular fabric of the country”.

An NSG official had asked for the list of police personnel on escort duty on Tuesday morning and, finding that two of them were Muslim, allegedly told a senior police official to take them off duty.

Both were immediately ordered to leave Vikram Maidan, the venue of Advani’s meet in the northern Kozhikode district.

The drivers were part of the team picked for Advani’s motorcade and had participated in the security drill.

Home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has asked the state director-general of police to probe the incident.

Kozhikode police commissioner Anup John Kuruvila, however, denied discrimination.

“There’s no religion in this. The two drivers happened to be part of the six-member standby crew while six others were on actual escort duty. But all 12 were put through the security drill,” he said.

The Advani visit had sparked another controversy when the helicopter carrying him from Kasargod to Kozhikode town skipped the meeting venue and landed 30km away at the international airport in Karipur thanks to a mix-up that the air traffic control officials blamed on the pilot. Karipur airport is often referred to as Kozhikode airport.