A day after Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manavjeet Singh Dhillon drew flak from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for comparing the RSS with Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), he said on Friday, 15 July, that his statements had been "selectively interpreted."
Those arrested had instead "elaborately referred" to modelling their training programme after RSS shakhas, he claimed, while clarifying that he never "compared one organisation with another."
However, BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said that his clarification was "even more dangerous" and "gave a clean chit to PFI."
He further accused Dhillon of making "out of way political statements."
Bihar police on Thursday claimed to have busted a terror module in the state after arresting two people, including a retired Jharkhand police official, allegedly associated with the PFI.
Dhillon's controversial statement post the arrest did not go down well with the BJP and the party demanded that he take back his "condemnable statements" and apologise.
Another Arrested in The Case
Another accused, Marguv Ahmad Danish alias Tahir, was arrested on Thursday night, Dhillon said, according to news agency ANI. The police intercepted his phone number and allegedly discovered "anti-national content."
Tahir, who worked in Dubai from 2006-2020, was associated with the Gazwa-e-Hind, Dhillon claimed.
He made two WhatsApp groups with a Pakistani number of which he was reportedly made the admin. While this group had "many people from Gulf countries," another group which was made in January had "people from Bangladesh."
Although the BJP has been insisting that the PFI's intention was to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Patna on 12 July, Dhillon clarified that their investigation did not reveal any link.
"They did not seem to be intending to directly target the prime minister's tour. But they had planned agitations against CAA-NRC and Triple Talaq in localities with a predominantly Muslim population on that day," he said.
The Backdrop
Besides their claims about the terror module, the police also said that a document had been obtained from the accused persons called 'Mission 2047,' which allegedly speaks about making India an Islamic country by the year 2047.
The two persons arrested on 14 July were identified as Mohammad Jallauddin and Athar Parvez. While Jallaluddin is a former police officer, Parvez is the brother of an accused in the 2013 Gandhi Maidan blast in Patna, the police said.
"They (The accused) have links with the PFI. Jallauddin was earlier associated with Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)," Phulwari Sharif Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Manish Kumar stated.
The police also added that under the pretext of running an NGO, the duo were involved in training people in martial arts, including the use of swords and knives, and terror activities.
Additionally, as per the police, the accused persons were not connected with any Pakistan-based organisation and their activities were not linked to former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, whose offensive remarks against Prophet Muhammad had triggered a massive row.
(With inputs from ANI.)
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