The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Sunday conducted a series of raids and searches across five states as part of its probe into the alleged conspiracy by the Popular Front of India (PFI) to disturb peace by driving a communal wedge among people. Several incriminating documents were seized during the raids, the agency said in a statement.
A total of 14 locations in Kannur, Malappuram, Dakshin Kannada, Nashik, Kolhapur, Murshidabad and Katihar districts of the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Bihar were raided. “Several incriminating digital devices as well as documents were seized during the raids aimed at unearthing the banned outfit’s conspiracy to disturb the peace and communal harmony of India,” the NIA said.
The agency claimed that it has been working to unravel and thwart the attempts by PFI and its top leadership to “create an armed cadre and raise a PFI Army for establishing an Islamic Caliphate in India by the year 2047 through acts of terror, violence and sabotage”.
It said the investigation has revealed that the PFI has been conspiring to radicalise gullible youth and provide them weapons training in a bid to further its violent anti-India agenda by fighting against certain sections of the society.
“NIA suspects several mid-rung PFI agents to be operating as master trainers who have been conducting Arms Training Camps across various states of the country for training its highly radicalised PFI cadres in the use of weapons, iron rods, swords and knives. On the basis of intelligence and investigative analysis and insights, it has been raiding multiple locations in various states over the past several months to identify and arrest these cadres and operatives,” the agency said.
The case against PFI was registered in Delhi in April 2022. Several top PFI leaders, including over a dozen NEC members, were arrested as the agency carried out a country-wide operations in September 2022.
“The NIA conducted intensive investigations against the accused and filed a chargesheet against 19 of them in March 2023. PFI as an organisation was also named in the chargesheet. Subsequently, in April 2023, a supplementary chargesheet was filed against the PFI National Coordinator of weapons training,” it said.
