E-Paper
U.P. police began probing PFI as early as 2010
The Uttar Pradesh police sounded an alert over the criminal and terror activities of the Popular Front of India (PFI) in the state in 2010 after the recovery of inflammatory material in the rural areas of Barabanki, Bahraich and Shravasti district
The Uttar Pradesh police sounded an alert over the criminal and terror activities of the Popular Front of India (PFI) in the state in 2010 after the recovery of inflammatory material in the rural areas of Barabanki, Bahraich and Shravasti district. These included posters with inflammatory messages and propaganda videos. Some members of the organisation had also been taken in for questioning.
The then special director general (law and order) Brij Lal, who was also head of the U.P. Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and U.P. Special Task Force (STF) had constituted teams to probe into the activities of the terror groU.P.s active in Uttar Pradesh after the bomb blast at Dashashwamedh ghat (Shitla ghat) Varanasi in December 2010 in which two people died while 37 were injured.
During the probe the special investigation team detected the activities of PFI in 22 districts of Uttar Pradesh. Worried over the network of the PFI across the state, the U.P. police contacted the Karnataka and Kerala police to trace the PFI link in U.P.. The state government also sought the assistance of the Intelligence Bureau to probe into the inroads made by the organisation in U.P..
Brij Lal, who is now a member of the Rajya Sabha, recalled the action taken against PFI on Wednesday. During the raids on the hideouts of PFI, the U.P. ATS team recovered special dress prepared for the terror outfit members along with propaganda materials. The PFI was planning to hold meetings and take out processions in various districts. The U.P. police launched a state-wide action against the PFI but after the change of the government in the 2012 assembly election, the action against PFI was stopped, he said.
The Social Democratic Party of India, the political wing of the PFI too became active in U.P. after the Samajwadi Party formed the government in the 2012 assembly election. The PFI gained ground in U.P. as its frontline organizations spread base by opening offices in various districts of U.P.. The ATS and STF virtually became defunct.
The SP government moved a petition in court for the withdrawal of cases against the terrorist but the Allahabad high court in its order said, the cases against the terrorist will not be withdrawn. “After the death of terrorist Khalid Mujahid in 2013, an FIR was registered against me while I was serving as DG. The aim was to demoralise the policemen probing the terror network in U.P.,” he said.
Brij Lal said PFI was formed in 2006 by merging extremist organizations like National Democratic Front of Kerala, Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD), Manitha Nithi Pasarai of Tamil Nadu and SIMI. The outfit organised training camps at many places in the country. Serial bomb-blasts were carried out in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008 in which 56 people were killed and more than 200 were injured. The then CM of Gujarat Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah were on the target of the PFI, he said.
