NIA, ED to step in to probe Bihar terror module

Links of arrested suspects traced to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen
Logo of Enforcement Directorate used for representational purpose only (File Photo | PTI)
Logo of Enforcement Directorate used for representational purpose only (File Photo | PTI)

PATNA: Two Central agencies — the NIA and the Enforcement Directorate — are set to help the Bihar Police in investigating the Phulwarisharif terror module. The police claim to have traced the links of arrested suspects, apparently associated with the Popular Front of India, to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Yemen. The police have not ruled out the possibility of terror funding. The police investigation has revealed the PFI was spreading its network in Bihar and had been involved in planning anti-India conspiracy for four years. The outfit is banned in neighbouring Jharkhand.

On Saturday, a joint team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the Bihar Anti-Terrorist Squad and the district police detained a suspect from Lucknow. The suspect provided legal support to PFI activists in securing bail from courts in terror-related cases across the country.

According to the police, the PFI was training youths in arms and brainwashing them so that they could spread communal hatred and indulge in violence. It has emerged that the Kerala unit of the PFI funded its Jharkhand counterpart. The outfit is now allegedly funding PFI activities in Bihar, UP, West Bengal and Kerala. Preliminary probe suggested that PFI’s Jharkhand unit was getting hefty money from illegal mining. “We are looking into every aspect of the case lodged with Phulwari police station in Patna,” said Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manavjeet Singh Dhillon.

The Patna police busted the terror module and arrested three persons, including a retired Jharkhand police officer Mohammad Jallauddin, who is allegedly linked to PFI. They planned to make India an “Islamic nation” by 2047 when the country will celebrate its centenary of Independence.Intelligence Bureau and Patna police are also interrogating a member of a sleeper cell, ‘Magroob Ahmad Danish,’ who is linked to the terror organisation ‘Ghazva-e-Hind.’.Danish allegedly had links with Pakistan-based radical outfit Tehreeq-e-Labbaik. Heh is stated to be the administrator of a WhatsApp group ‘Ghazwa-e-Hind’, through which he propagated an anti-India agenda. A Pakistani national, Faizan, had created the group.

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