The Patna police arrested three Popular Front of India (PFI) activists from Phulwarisharif police station area and send them to judicial custody late on Wednesday and Thursday on charges of conspiring and attempting to create animosity between religions.
One of the arrested persons , identified as Mohammad Jalaluddin, is a retired police sub-inspector of Jharkhand police while another, Mohammad Athar Parvez, was a former member of banned outfit Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The third person has been identified as Armaan Malik.
The FIR was registered on the basis of the statement of Phulwarisharif SHO Ekrar Ahmad, who received a tip-off that some people were planning a disturbance ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in Patna. The FIR added that around 26 men received weapons training on the premises of Ahmad Palace, a three-storey building situated at Nayatola Nahar Par. A police team raided Ahmad Palace on Wednesday and recovered poster, flags, pamphlets, booklets and other incriminating documents including a seven-page note titled “India 2047” that spells plans to make India an Islamic country.
The police arrested Ahmad Palace’s owner Jalaluddin and Athar Pravez, who is also the general secretary of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), a political wing of PFI. The arrested PFI members also have links with the SDPI and the All India Imam Council
Confirming their arrest, Patna SSP Manavjit Singh Dhillon said on Thursday that PFI and SDPI mobilise and radicalise their cadres. They provide arms for training, he added . In Bihar, PFI and SDPI are not banned but they train young people on the pretext of physical education.
The SSP, however denied that the arrested people intented to target PM Modi during his July 12 visit to Patna.
“There are no specific inputs that the arrested persons gathered ahead of PM’s visit. On July 6 and 7, more than 12 people from outside Bihar attended the meeting held at Ahmad Palace,” he said.
The second floor of Ahmad Palace was rented by Athar Pravez for ₹16,000 a month to run a NGO. An agreement to the effect was recovered during the raid.
Police said that Parvez’s younger brother Manzar Parvez was previously jailed for some terror cases. Athar Pravez is believed to have bailed out many terror accused involved in 2001, 2003 and 2013 blast cases in the state, and is also believed to have raised ₹83 lakhs to do so. The police claimed that foreign money may have been used and said the Enforcement Dircetorate would investigate the matter.
A case was registered with Phulwarisharif police station against 26 people from Patna, Nalanda, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Katihar, Araria, Vaishali, Saran and East Champaran districts. All of them attended the meeting at Ahmad Palace, the SSP said. “Police have evidence that some suspects came from Kerala, Chennai and Telangana trained others in the use of swords and knives under the guise of martial arts.”
The police claim to have video footage of the training. The suspects were staying in hotels under fake names and also travelled under these names, the police added.
The document “India 2047” lays out a scenario under which India becomes an Islamic country by 2047.
The seven-page document’s title page reads “India 2047 Towards rule of Islamic India, Internal documents, Not for Circulation.”
Page number 3 of the document read: “PFI is confident that even if 10% of total Muslim population rally behind it, PFI would subjugate the coward majority community to their knees and bring back the glory of Islamic country.”
Page number 7 read: “In the scenario of full-fledged show down with the state, apart from relying on our trained PE cadres, we would need help from friendly Islamic countries. In the last few years, PFI has developed friendly relationship with Turkey, a flag bearer of Islam. Efforts are on to cultivate reliable friendship in some other Islamic countries. “
“To achieve this goal, this roadmap has been prepared to be kept in mind by all the PFI leaders and accordingly guide the PFI cadres, in particular and Muslim community, in general towards this goal,” the document added.
“All our frontal organisations including Party should be focussed on expanding and recruiting new members. We would begin to recruit and train members into our PE department wherein they should be given training on attacking and defensive techniques, use of swords, rods, and other weapons,” the PFI document read.
The PFI document, also enumerated plans to recruit “loyal Muslims” into government departments, including executive and judicial positions as well as the police and the Army. According to the document ,the PFI also plans to “create a split between RSS and SCs/STs/OBCs” by projecting the organisation as an outfit interested only in the welfare of “upper caste Hindus”. The document stated that those against their interest are to be “eliminated”.
