Safeer Ahmad (34) of Rajivnagar, Mysore, sometimes attended PFI’s monthly guidance programmes and also donated money. Safeer’s association with the outfit would have been longer but his arrest, along with that of 17 others, on July 6, 2009, in connection with the communal riots that broke out in Mysore, changed all that. The activists were charged under Sections 147, 153 (A), 353, 120 (B), read with 149 of the IPC.
Later, Section 307 was also added. Although Safeer was released afterwards, his links with PFI weakened and he almost broke away.
PFI members who know Safeer say he was involved with the organisation only for a short period. Mohammad Ataullah, President of the outfit’s Mysore District unit, does not have very vivid memories. Safeer ran a motor-winding shop near Mandi Mohalla, Mysore.
PFI State President Elyas Mohammad Thumbe claimed that none of the five other suspects – Adil Pasha (23), Syed Ameen (23), Rahman alias Shabbir (25), Mohammad Kouser (26), and Ataullah Khan 23) – was associated with the organisation. Yet, Mohammad Ataullah does not rule out that the suspects may have attended PFI’s programmes.
Impossible task
“Anybody can attend our programmes. It’s nearly impossible to maintain the records of every visitor. But it’s sure that none of the other five suspects was our active member,” Ataullah told Deccan Herald.
Thumbe has condemned the government’s move to link PFI with the brutal crime. “How can the government claim that KFD is behind the heinous act? To defame an organisation by the conduct of its one-time member is ridiculous,” Thumbe asserted.
Thumbe also questioned the move to drag in KFD, an organisation which no longer exists. “Their claim that KFD, a defunct outfit, is behind the crime is perplexing,” he said, denying charges that PFI tried to hoist the flag of a neighbouring country in one of its functions.
The PFI State President said that the outfit had its own channels of funding and never asked any member to indulge in criminal activities to raise money. PFI asks every regular member to donate as per his capacity. Besides, the organisation collects money from the public during Ramzan. In addition, it seeks donations for its special programmes. PFI did not get donations from West Asia, Thumbe said.
Across Karnataka, PFI has 30,000 active members. In Mysore, it has nearly 3,000 activists whereas in Bangalore, the number goes up to 5,000. The organisation is active in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Manipur and Madhya Pradesh. In Karnataka, the organisation has divisions in almost every district.
PFI has four frontal organisations – Campus Front of India, National Women’s Front, All India Imams Council, and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), its political wing.
Issue figures in Cabinet meet
The activities of the Karnataka Forum for Dignity (KFD) are said to have come up for discussion at the State Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
Activists of KFD, an organisation which allegedly has links with some terror outfits, are believed to have abducted and murdered two Hunsur students two weeks ago.
“KFD was discussed at the Cabinet meeting. However, no decision was taken to ban the outfit,” a minister who attended Thursday’s Cabinet meeting said.
Earlier in the day BJP Legislator B N Vijayakumar alleged that there were several police officers and politicians who support extremist groups like the KFD in the State and demanded setting up of a separate cell in the police department to fight such outfits.
