Guwahati: Assam police has registered 16 cases against the Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and two cases against its student wing Campus Front of India (CFI).
Assam police Special Branch ADGP Hiren Nath on Saturday said a charge sheet has been filed in 12 cases while the investigation is underway for the remaining cases.
“On April 15, we registered a case in Barpeta district in which some (16) ABT activists were arrested. One of them was Maqibul Hussain. During the interrogation, Hussain acknowledged that he was the president of PFI of Barpeta district,” Nath said.
He said police have also found evidence that PFI has closed ties with Bangladesh-based terror group Ansarullah Bangla Team.
“Before joining Ansarullah Bangla Team he was actively working for PFI in the lower Assam, but later resigned to join the said group where he was trained by Mehdi Hasan,” he said.
Ansarullah Bangla Team is a terror outfit, inspired by Al-Qaeda, and based in Bangladesh.
He said several PFI workers in the State are also working for the Islamic terror organisation. As per the Additional Director General of Police, PFI is active in 10 districts in the State.
The police officer said that the police are keeping a close eye on its activities.
He added that the Islamic outfit has a habit of raking sensitive issues, unrelated to Assam, to provoke religious sentiments.
“One of the modus operandi of this group or the workers is that anything happening anywhere in the country which does not even have any connection with Assam–may be some Hijab issue or some temples, mosques– they will demonstrate it here, especially in the lower Assam region, including Guwahati city, Goalpara, Barpeta, Baksa, Dhubri and some parts of the Barak Valley,” Nath said.
“Anything relating to a minority community, it may be a road accident, it may a quarrel between two groups, it may be misunderstanding, it may be an investigation of a case by law enforcement agencies, they try to term it as an attack on the minority community,” Nath said.
He said the police have recovered PFI pamphlets in Bengali and Arabic, literature propagating Jihad and printing materials inscribed with anti-national slogans.