Catching them Young: Mubarak Hussain won 2nd prize in the Babri Masjid drawing competition organised in Mongra area, Katihar (Photo Courtesy: PFI’s Facebook page)
Popular Front of India (PFI) general secretary Anis Ahmed has recently said that the destroyed disputed structure at Ayodhya is the Al-Aqsa mosque of Bharat and his organisation would do everything to revive its memories. “Babri Masjid should be the rallying point of Muslims in India: it is the Al-Aqsa mosque for us,” he said.
The ultra-Islamist outfit has been working hard to build a victimhood narrative around this. For this, they have been organising children’s competitions and other programmes to instil hatred among children.
Meanwhile, the Islamist outfit had fanned out radicalised youths from Southern States, especially Kerala, to radicalise children of impressionable age groups. The Union Home Ministry has asked State police forces to keep a close watch on the activities of such youths who have undergone military training.
According to a police official in Bihar Police, these organisers have been targeting school-going children for “jihadi capacity building”. The police forces have been asked to keep an eye on the activities of individuals who are associated with the PFI.
UP Police officials who had interrogated arrested PFI activists Anshad Badaruddin, Firoz Khan and Siddique Kappan have submitted a detailed report to the Union Home Ministry. The investigation had yielded good results in terms of unravelling the terror network which has been gaining strength in Southern States. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had earlier stated that PFI activists from Kerala have been behind the violence during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act agitation.
The youths sent from Kerala to North Indian states as organisers have specific tasks: set up units of PFI and Campus Front of India on college campuses. Promising youths are given training and inducted into the organisation for its nefarious activities.
Kappan, the dubious journalist who is facing trial, has been a regular attendee in the meetings of “Maithree”, a non-political Malayali student organisation. A police official informed that Kappan has been tasked with identifying “talents” for recruitment in the PFI.
According to the police official quoted above, the arrested terrorists have told investigators that PFI proposes to build an army of highly radicalised ‘hit squads’ consisting of 25 members in all districts of the country. The members are imparted arms training and some are given bomb-making training. For this, youths working as mechanics are selected. Badaruddin and Khan have been giving arms training to youths, according to police.
PFI ‘organisers’ gain trust of the local community by giving hefty sums as donations to madrassas and mosques. Most of the organisers are well-versed in Hindi and Wahabi ideology. They organise religious events and competitions to attract children and they are given prizes. They are also given Islamist literature as presents.
Recruited youths are taken to Kerala as labourers and given advanced training by retired police and military personnel. Bangladeshi nationals are also taken to Kerala for training.
After the arrests of Khan and Badaruddin, PFI had recalled some of its workers active in UP back home in Kerala. Now, with the elections round the corner, they are being dispatched to their areas. The police suspects these hardened terrorists might create unrest during the upcoming UP elections.
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