Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 29 (IANS) Former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy Thursday defended the previous Congress government in not having ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the 2003 communal clashes in Marad in which nine people were killed.

Chandy, Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly, said the Thomas P. Joseph judicial probe initiated by the then A.K. Antony government after two all-party meetings decided against a CBI probe.

The report of the judicial probe, tabled Wednesday in the assembly, indicted the Antony government for not going ahead with a CBI probe into the violent communal clashes.

"The report said the CBI probe was not initiated because Antony was not keen for it, which is not true. The then United Democratic Front (UDF) government had discussed this issue after two all-party meetings. Except for the Bharatiya Janata Party none asked for it. The need of the hour then was to see that the aggrieved party was pacified," Chandy told reporters.

The coastal village of Marad in Kozhikode district had been rocked by violent communal clashes in 2002 and 2003 - considered the worst in the state. Fourteen people were killed in the clashes between Muslims and Hindus in the two years.

State Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan alleged that Chandy had not tabled the report despite receiving it on Feb 20 this year. The former chief minister retorted saying that there had been just one day more for the assembly to end then and it was not possible to table the report the very next day.

Welcoming the CBI probe ordered early this month by the V.S. Achuthanandan government into the 2003 Marad clashes, Chandy said the opposition was of the view that it should also cover the first Marad massacre.

"It is in the first massacre that the judicial probe has indicted the Communist Party of India-Marxist. We demand the present government should ask for a CBI probe into that also," said Chandy.