MUMBAI: Mumbai Police has kicked up a controversy following its circular which says the women's wing of an Islamic organization is "brainwashing and training girls for jihad". The outfit has threatened legal action if no apology is tendered by the police.

The "internal circular" said the Girls Islamic Organization (GIO) of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind , one of the country's largest Islamic organizations that runs 40 high schools and three junior colleges in Maharashtra, has been operating with the objective of "brainwashing college and school girls and train them for jihad".

"The group GIO is related to Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and it was established in Kerala. The purported aim of this organization is to make more and more Muslim women aware of their religion and the holy Quran. But the real objective of this organization is to brainwash school and college girls and train them for jihad," the circular, issued last month, says.

The document, meant for internal circulation, got leaked and has invited the wrath of Jamaat with its Maharashtra spokesman Mohammad Aslam Ghazi threatening to sue the police department if it does not apologise.

Ghazi alleged it was a deliberate attempt to tarnish the image of the socio-religious organization.

"The circular was leaked with vicious intentions. The allegations against GIO are false and baseless," he said.

"The Mumbai Police either has to prove the allegations or apologize for the error. Otherwise, we would sue them for defamation," said Ghazi, adding their organization worked for "peace, justice and to fight against prejudice of the state machinery".

Mumbai Police spokesman Satyanarayana Choudhary said "the circular was meant to be only for the department and not for public."

Earlier, Mumbai Police had got embroiled in a row over a poem by a traffic police inspector Sujata Patil published in an issue of the force's in-house journal 'Samwad' where she had described last year's Azad Maidan protesters as "snakes" and "traitors" whose hands should have been "chopped off". Amid threat of legal action and mounting anger of Mulim organizations, Patil had apologised in writing. The apology was published in the next issue of 'Samwad'.