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PFI says two of its men were abducted and arrested by UP’s STF
PFI’s national secretary Nasaruddin Elamaram claimed the two men were on the way to West Bengal when they were abducted from the Bengal-Bihar border.
The Popular Front of India (PFI), a radical outfit, on Wednesday said two of its workers arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in connection with alleged terror activities were innocent and they were abducted by UP’s Special Task Force (STF) while they were going to West Bengal for poll-related work.
The STF claimed that the two men from Kerala - Ansad Baharuddin and Firoz Khan - were planning a series of bomb attacks in UP and seized improvised explosive devices from them. It also said they were on a mission to train local youth and had prepared a list of top Hindu functionaries to attack them.
The PFI rejected this claim and said STF was planning to implement the agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“They were missing for the last three days and their relatives had filed complaints with the police in Kozhikode and Pandalam. They were on their way to West Bengal in connection with upcoming elections and were abducted by the STF along the Bihar-Bengal border,” said PFI’s national secretary Nasaruddin Elamaram in Kozhikode (north Kerala).
He said there was a concerted campaign to portray the PFI in a bad light for opposing the RSS agenda and the latest incident was part of it. “The STF is playing into the hands of the RSS. The seized materials were planted. We will approach the court against their illegal detention,” he said.
Last week UP police had taken Campus Front of India, PFI student wing, national secretary Rauf Sharief to Mathura in connection with a complaint regarding an alleged move to incite unrest in Hathras last October following the death of a young Dalit woman after gang rape.
Central agencies had also raided offices and houses of many PFI leaders including Nasaruddin Elamaram. The UP police had alleged that Rauf Sharief bore travel expenses of Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan and three others who were arrested in October on charges of planning to incite unrest in Hathras.
On Monday, the Supreme Court allowed a five-day bail to Kappan to meet his ailing mother.
The latest arrest of the two PFI came at a time when many BJP-ruled states have sought a ban on the organisation. The PFI is considered an offshoot of the banned Students’ Islamic Front of India (SIMI). Many of its leaders were members of the SIMI.
The PFI describes itself as a social movement committed to empower people belonging to the minority communities, Dalits and other weaker sections of the society.
