An official says the organization’s alleged links with extremist elements abroad are being investigated
An official says the organization’s alleged links with extremist elements abroad are being investigated
Enforcement agencies are now probing the alleged links of-Popular Front of India banned (PFI) with extremist elements in Turkey, and others who provided financial assistance to the organization from Qatar to carry out their activities in India.
“In search of funds for its organisation, some PFI members first traveled to Qatar and met with some Turkish nationals … There are also reports that its National Executive Council members EM Rahiman and P. Koya were allegedly arrested. One in Istanbul was hosted by an al Qaeda-linked charity organization,” said an agency official.
The official said that many people associated with PFI had joined ISIS in the past as well. In a case later taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Special Cell of Delhi Police found Mohammed Ismail Mohideen, a resident of Kannur, Kerala, along with another person after he was deported by Turkish authorities in July 2017. was arrested.
The accused identified himself as Shahjahan VK and disclosed that he had issued a passport in the name of Ismail Mohideen after being deported from Turkey for the first time in February that year. Shah Jahan reportedly joined the National Democratic Front (the predecessor of the PFI) in 2006. He then got in touch with local PFI leaders and participated in its meetings in 2008.
It is alleged that Shamir, the then PFI Mandal President of Valapatnam, introduced Shah Jahan to the ideology of ISIS and prompted him to go to Turkey/Syria after ISIS’s declaration of caliphate by Abu Bakr Baghdadi. As per the instructions of Shamir, who was already in Syria, the accused along with his wife and two sons went to Malaysia in October 2016 and then to Iran.
In Iran, another accused named Shazil and his family – who had reached there via Mangalore and Dubai – joined them, and went to Istanbul. In February 2017, some people were trying to go to Syria when Shah Jahan was detained and deported to India. He then made another unsuccessful attempt.
In another ISIS related case registered in December 2017, Kerala Police received a tip-off that some youths had gone to Syria and were planning to join ISIS. “Most of the accused were associated with PFI. Hamza, who returned from the Gulf, was the mastermind of recruiting the youth of Kerala to ISIS. He befriended some PFI supporters while Sameer provided the action plan to travel to Syria via different countries,” the official said.
Later the police arrested five people including Hamza. The NIA later took over the investigation and filed a charge sheet against the 17 accused. In another such case, two of the 15 accused, Umar Al Hindi alias Muthukka and Safwan, had alleged links with the PFI.