PFI’s ‘training commander’ nabbed from UP’s Basti district

LUCKNOW The UP Special Task Force (STF) on Sunday arrested a man in Basti district who was alleged to be the ‘training commander’ of Popular Front of India’s (PFI) hit squad, said police officials

LUCKNOW The UP Special Task Force (STF) on Sunday arrested a man in Basti district who was alleged to be the ‘training commander’ of Popular Front of India’s (PFI) hit squad, said police officials. They claimed to have recovered multiple fake identify proofs and anti-national literature from his possession.

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According to a statement by the UP STF, the accused Mohammed Rashid Ali of Siddharthnagar was arrested from Basti’s Moodghat crossing when he was about to board a bus to Lucknow to move towards Mumbai with the intent of meeting other members of his organisation and plan out nefarious activities against the country.

The STF was trying to trace his location after his name surfaced as the training commander of the PFI’s hit squad following the arrest of Asad Badruddin, the alleged national head of the hit squad, and his accomplice Feroz Khan, from Lucknow’s Gudamba area on February 16, said an official of the STF.

“Earlier, the STF had information that Rashid was about to move to Mumbai on March 11. But we failed to locate him as he had changed his plan. On Sunday, we were tipped off again about his movement from Basti and he was arrested,” he said, adding: “A bundle of pamphlets containing anti-national content, two Aadhaar cards (including one fake) and a CD containing anti-national content was recovered from him.”

The official said Rashid was involved in the selection of youths for the hit squad and trained them in handling firearms and explosives.

“We are investigating about his background and other people who were in touch with him for the past few months, as the hit squad was planning to trigger blasts in different parts of the state and the country,” he stated.

The official said Rashid had been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 121-A (planning to commit terror blasts), 420 (fraud), 467 (forging documents), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged documents as genuine) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy). He said an FIR had been registered with the city kotwali of Basti.

Earlier, the STF had claimed to have foiled a plan to carry out terror attacks after the arrest of Asad Badruddin and Firoz Khan and recovery of 16 high explosive devices, a pistol and live cartridges from them. Badruddin and Khan were natives of Kerala and had planned to carry out explosions near functions of Hindu organisations on Basant Panchami, and other strategic locations in UP, said officials.

The PFI, which claimed to be a social youth organisation based in Kerala, had been on the radar of UP police since 2019 when many of its members, across the state, were arrested in connection with the violent anti CAA-NRC protests.