PATNA: Mahmood Alam Nadvi, former Bihar chief of the banned outfit --Popular Front of India (PFI) -- was arrested from Bihar’s Kishanganj district on Friday, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit to Purnea on September 15.
Officials of the state intelligence agencies said that 39-year-old Nadvi was working as a teacher in a private school in Kishanganj, close to India-Bangladesh border.
Sources said that Nadvi had fled to Oman in 2022 after the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) unearthed a terror training camp in Patna. The PFI’s office was operating from the Phulwarisharif locality of the state capital.
Authoritative sources revealed that Nadvi stayed in contact with ISIS and Boko Haram before returning to Bihar in March. “He was staying in Kishanganj after he returned to Bihar,” a senior police officer said.
National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids on another hideous of Nadvi in Mohuddinpur, Kishanganj on Thursday and seized several objectionable documents.
A native of Katihar’s Vanshitola village, Nadvi had been evading arrest for the last three years.
Nadvi’s arrest ahead of Prime Minister’s scheduled visit to Purnea has come as a big achievement for the state police as well as central agencies, which have heightened security along India-Nepal and India-Bangladesh borders.
Sources in NIA said that Nadvi’s interrogation will throw more light on terror links in Bihar and outside.
“Efforts are on to elicit more information about the network of banned outfits in the state,” a senior IPS officer said on Friday.
In 2022, Union Home Ministry banned PFI after its activities were found to be anti-national.
During the investigation, it came to light that PFI had set up its ‘jihadi squad’ at its Phulwarisharif training camp in Patna. The PFI had spread its network in Seemanchal region, comprising Kishanganj, Purnea, Araria and Katihar districts.
Nadvi was appointed Bihar incharge of the banned outfit in 2016-17. He had worked hard to strengthen the outfit’s network across Bihar, especially in Seemanchal.
The NIA is trying to elicit information from Nadvi about PFI’s operational network, funding and foreign connections. “He is being quizzed by officials of state and central investigating agencies,” a source in the State ATS said.