Kerala - Kozhikode   

`NDF had received aid from foreign countries'

Staff Reporter

ACP deposes before Marad inquiry panel

Kozhikode: A key witness in an illegal arms possession case had given a statement to the police during its investigation that the National Development Front (NDF) had been receiving crores of rupees as funds from foreign countries to carry out its training programmes, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Special Branch, Ernakulam, A.V. George, told the Marad Judicial Inquiry Commission here on Saturday.

Mr. George while deposing before the Commission Thomas P. Joseph said that P.P. Harris, hailing from Panniyankara in Kozhikode, had testified in the case in which K.P. Mohammed Ashraf and M.U. Subair, had been accused in the Coimbatore serial blast on February 14, 1998. However, the police were not able to investigate into the charges of that organisation obtaining funds from other countries, he said.

Both Ashraf and Subair were arrested from the private bus station in Kozhikode on March 31, 1998. A country-made revolver, cartilages and passports were recovered from them. They had been charge sheeted for harbouring Ooma Babu a prime accused in the Coimbatore serial blast case, Mr. George said.

Based on the statement of Asharf in the case, Mr. George said that Ashraf had been send by the People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief Abdul Nasir Maudany to get him trained in Pakistan. But the emigration officials detained him at Bangkok and he was forced to return to India. Maudany had paid for the expenses of Ashraf through travel agencies in the State capital. Ashraf, now lodged at the Coimbatore Central prison, had been a PDP worker who later shifted his loyalties to NDF. One of his reasons for joining NDF was that his friends at Marad were associated with that organisation. Even while working for NDF, his mind was with PDP. He had gone to Coimbatore to study the activities of Al Umma.

Harris had also testified that Subiar had been with the secret wing of the NDF while also being its unit convener at Panniyankara, Mr. George said. According to Maudany's testimony, Mr. George said that the NDF used to send people to Pakistan for the last several years. But Maudany had not given any evidence based on his statement.

Ashraf's intention of visiting Pakistan had been aimed at forming a new organisation — Majlis Thabeethul Islami — because members of the PDP were joining extremist organisations like the NDF.

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