A senior Patna Police official on Thursday compared Islamic organisation Popular Front of India’s physical training modules with those of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, leading to criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hindustan Times reported.

Senior Superintendent of Police Manavjit Singh Dhillon made the statement at a press conference held to brief about the arrests of three Popular Front of India members and its political wing Social Democratic Party of India on July 13 and 14.

“Their [PFI’s] modus operandi was to act like an RSS shakha where lathi training is given,” Dhillon said. “...They would call them for physical training but also brainwash and radicalise them. They train the youth under the guise of physical education and spread propaganda.”

The official said that the police had got documents about camps where Popular Front of India members were being trained in martial arts and using weapons like sword.

Rajya Sabha MP and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi demanded that Dhillon should withdraw his statement and apologise. He said that the RSS was a patriotic organisation and that it was “highly condemnable and ignorant” to compare it with the PFI.

The RSS is the BJP’s ideological fountainhead, and several leaders of the saffron party have been closely associated with it.

Bihar BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said that the senior superintendent of police should apologise for his statement and resign. “IAS and IPS officers are considered above politics and ideological influence,” he said. “Patna SSP’s statement comparing PFI with RSS is shameful and seriously condemnable.”

However, Danish Rizwan, spokesperson of the Hindustani Awam Morcha, said that it was not fair to criticise Dhillon, NDTV reported. “All he said was the way RSS has shakhas, these people do too,” he said. “It did not mean that he was calling the RSS a terrorist organisation.”

Bihar’s main Opposition party the Rashtriya Janata Dal said that the police official’s description of the RSS modus operandi was “absolutely correct” and alleged that the organisation spreads hatred and propaganda in the name of physical education.

“Whenever [the RSS] establishes itself in an area, it carries out riots, mob lynching and other activities that harm social harmony,” the party said.

Additional Director General of Police (headquarters) JS Gangwar said that the police are getting Dhillon’s statement examined and will take action if needed, according to the Hindustan Times.

Meanwhile, the three Popular Front of India members who were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday were identified as Mohammed Jallauddin, Athar Pravej and Arman Malik, The Hindu reported. The police seized a seven-page document about an alleged plan to “establish rule of Islam in India by 2047”.

“PFI is confident that even if 10% of the total Muslim population rallied behind it, the organisation would subjugate the majority community to their knees and bring back the glory of Islam in India,” the document allegedly read.