PFI seeks CBI probe after arrest of its members

Two days after Uttar Pradesh Police arrested members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) who were allegedly planning a series of attacks at various places in the state, party general secretary in Delhi demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe by the CBI and alleged that the police was taking revenge against the party for filing a PIL against them in 2019.

New Delhi:"Popular Front of India strongly condemns the arrests of its members Anshad and Firoz by the Uttar Pradesh STF by creating a ridiculous fake story of a terror attack. Both the persons are residents of Kerala and had visited West Bengal and Bihar for the expansion work of the organization," said PFI general secretary Anis Ahmed.

"On 11th February morning, 5:40 am both of them boarded a train from Katihar, Bihar to Mumbai. As per their families, they last contacted them on the evening of 11th Feb after which they were not reachable on their phone. The family had filed a complaint at a local police station in Kerala on 16th Feb morning," he added.

Anis Ahmed said that a fake story is being created by the UP police which is known for making film scripts to justify its illegal activities. The arrest of Anshad and Firoz on 11th Feb by the UP police and presenting them to media on 16th Feb is yet another attempt by the UP government to create a fake narrative of "threat to national security".

It is now evident that on the evening while the train was running through UP, both of them might have been kidnapped by the UP STF at any of the railway stations in UP and kept in illegal custody and tortured, said PFI general secretary.

He alleged that the UP government led by Yogi Adityanath had earlier tried to label Popular Front state ad-hoc committee members as the mastermind of the alleged anti-CAA protest violence which the police failed to prove in the court resulting in the Popular Front ad-hoc committee members getting released on bail.

PFI claims itself to be a social youth organisation based in Kerala and it has been under the radar of several states police. On January 1, 2020, UP police had sent a fresh request to the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking a ban on PFI.

Sources had then said that the MHA will take inputs from the states and intelligence agencies, including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and National Investigation Agency (NIA) on whether the PFI was allegedly involved in their respective states.

Read: Police probe foreign links of arrested PFI members